35. +Losses of English from the Incoming of Norman-French.+-- (ii) The arrestment of growth in the purely English part of our language, owing to the irruption of Norman-French, and also to the ease with which we could take a ready-made word from Latin or from Greek, killed off an old power which we once possessed, and which was not without its own use and expressiveness. This was the power of making compound words. The Greeks in ancient times had, and the Germans in modern times have, this power in a high degree. Thus a Greek comic poet has a word of fourteen syllables, which may be thus translated-- “Meanly-rising-early-and-hurrying-to-the-tribunal- to-denounce-another-for-an-infraction-of-the-law- concerning-the-exportation-of-figs.”[6] And the Germans have a compound like “the-all-to-nothing-crushing philosopher.” The Germans also say _iron-path_ for _railway_, _handshoe_ for _glove_, and _finger-hat_ for _thimble_. We also possessed this power at one time, and employed it both in proper and in common names. Thus we had and have the names _Brakespear_, _Shakestaff_, _Shakespear_, _Golightly_, _Dolittle_, _Standfast_; and the common nouns _want-wit_, _find-fault_, _mumble-news_ (for _tale-bearer_), _pinch-penny_ (for _miser_), _slugabed_. In older times we had _three-foot-stool_, _three-man-beetle_[7]; _stone-cold_, _heaven-bright_, _honey-sweet_, _snail-slow_, _nut-brown_, _lily-livered_ (for _cowardly_); _brand-fire-new_; _earth-wandering_, _wind-dried_, _thunder-blasted_, _death-doomed_, and many others. But such words as _forbears_ or _fore-elders_ have been pushed out by _ancestors_; _forewit_ by _caution_ or _prudence_; and _inwit_ by _conscience_. Mr Barnes, the Dorsetshire poet, would like to see these and similar compounds restored, and thinks that we might well return to the old clear well-springs of “English undefiled,” and make our own compounds out of our own words. He even carries his desires into the region of English grammar, and, for _degrees of comparison_, proposes the phrase _pitches of suchness_. Thus, instead of the Latin word _omnibus_, he would have _folk-wain_; for the Greek _botany_, he would substitute _wort-lore_; for _auction_, he would give us _bode-sale_; _globule_ he would replace with _ballkin_; the Greek word _horizon_ must give way to the pure English _sky-edge_; and, instead of _quadrangle_, he would have us all write and say _four-winkle_. [Footnote 6: In two words, a _fig-shower_ or _sycophant_.] [Footnote 7: A club for beating clothes, that could be handled only by three men.]