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On the contrary, the termination less added to substantives, makes adjectives signifying want; as, worthless, witless, heartless, joyless, careless, helpless. Thus comfort, comfortless; sap, sapless.

Privation or contrariety is very often denoted by the participle un prefixed to many adjectives, or in before words derived from the Latin; as pleasant, unpleasant; wise, unwise; profitable, unprofitable, patient, impatient. Thus unworthy, unhealthy, unfruitful, unuseful, and many more.

The original English privative is un; but as we often borrow trom the Latin, or its descendants, words already signifying privation, as inefficacious, impious, indiscreet, the inseparable particles un and in have fallen into confusion, from which it is not easy to disentangle them.

Un is prefixed to all words originally English, as untrue, untruth, untaught, unhandsome.

Un is prefixed to all participles made privative adjectives, as unfeeling, unassisting, unaided, undelighted, unendeared.

Un ought never to be prefixed to a participle present to mark a forbearance of action, as unsighing, but a privation of habit, as unpitying.

Un is prefixed to most substantives which have an English termination, as unfertileness, unperfectness, which, if they have borrowed terminations, take in or im, as infertility, imperfection; uncivil, incivility; unactive, inactivity.

In borrowing adjectives, if we receive them already compounded, it is usual to retain the particle prefixed, as indecent, inelegant, improper; but if we borrow the adjective, and add the privative particle, we commonly prefix un, as unpolite, ungallant.

The prepositive particles dis and mis, derived from the des and mes of the French, signify almost the same as un; yet dis rather imports contrariety than privation, since it answers to the Latin preposition de. Mis insinuates some errour, and for the most part may be rendered by the Latin words male or perperam. To like, to dislike; honour, dishonour; to honour, to grace, to dishonour, to disgrace; to deign, to disdeign; chance, hap, mischance, mishap; to take, to mistake; deed, misdeed; to use, to misuse; to employ, to misemploy, to apply, to misapply.

Words derived from Latin written with de or dis retain the same signification; as distinguish, distinguo; detract, detraho; defame, defamo; detain, detineo.

The termination ly added to substantives, and sometimes to adjectives, forms adjectives that import some kind of similitude or agreement, being formed by contraction of lick or like. A giant, giantly, giantlike; earth, earthly; heaven, heavenly; world, worldly; God, godly; good, goodly.

The same termination ly, added to adjectives, forms adverbs of like signification; as, beautiful, beautifully; sweet, sweetly; that is, in a beautiful manner; with some degree of sweetness.

The termination ish added to adjectives, imports diminution; and added to substantives, imports similitude or tendency to a character; as green, greenish; white, whitish; soft, softish; a thief, thievish; a wolf, wolfish; a child, childish.

We have forms of diminutives in substantives, though not frequent; as a hill, a hillock; a cock, a cockrel; a pike, a pickrel; this is a French termination: a goose, a gosling; this is a German termination: a lamb, a lambkin; a chick, a chicken; a man, a manikin; a pipe, a pipkin; and thus Halkin, whence the patronymick, Hawkins; Wilkin, Thomkin, and others.

Yet still there is another form of diminution among the English, by lessening the sound itself, especially of vowels, as there is a form of augmenting them by enlarging or even lengthening it; and that sometimes not so much by change of the letters, as of their pronunciation; as, sup, sip, soop, sop, sippet, where, besides the extenuation of the vowel, there is added the French termination et; top, tip; spit, spout; babe, baby; booby, [Greek: Boupais]; great pronounced long, especially if with a stronger sound, grea-t; little, pronounced long lee-tle; ting, tang, tong, imports a succession of smaller and then greater sounds; and so in jingle, jangle, tingle, tangle, and many other made words.

Much however of this is arbitrary and fanciful, depending wholly on oral utterance, and therefore scarcely worthy the notice of Wallis.