Remarks on Irregular Adjectives.


[Sidenote: _List I._]

164. (1) The word good has no comparative or superlative, but takes
the place of a positive to _better_ and _best_. There was an old
comparative _bet_, which has gone out of use; as in the sentence (14th
century), "Ich singe _bet_ than thu dest" (I sing better than thou
dost). The superlative I form was _betst_, which has softened to the
modern _best_.

(2) In Old English, evil was the positive to _worse_, _worst_; but
later _bad_ and _ill_ were borrowed from the Norse, and used as
positives to the same comparative and superlative. _Worser_ was once
used, a double comparative; as in Shakespeare,--

O, throw away the _worser_ part of it.--HAMLET.

(3) Little is used as positive to _less_, _least_, though from a
different root. A double comparative, _lesser_, is often used; as,--

We have it in a much _lesser_ degree.--MATTHEW ARNOLD.

Thrust the _lesser_ half by main force into the fists of Ho-ti.
--LAMB.

(4) The words much and many now express quantity; but in former
times _much_ was used in the sense of _large_, _great_, and was the