1. Etymology treats of the _classification_ of words.

2. Etymology explains the _accidents_ or _properties_ peculiar to each
class or sort of words, and their present _modifications_. By
modifications, I mean the changes produced on their _endings_, in
consequence of their assuming different relations in respect to one
another. These changes, such as fruit, fruit_s_, fruit'_s_; he, h_is_,
h_im_; write, write_st_, write_th_, write_s_, wr_ote_, writ_ten_,
writ_ing_, write_r_; a, a_n_; ample, ampl_y_, and the like, will be
explained in their appropriate places.

3. Etymology treats of the _derivation_ of words; that is, it teaches
you _how one word comes from_, or _grows out of_ another. For example,
from the word speak, come the words speak_est_, speak_eth_, speak_s_,
speak_ing_, sp_oke_, spo_ken_, speak_er_, speak_er's_, speak_ers_.
These, you perceive, are all one and the same word, and all, except the
last three, express the same kind of action. They differ from each other
only in the termination. These changes in termination are produced on
the word in order to make it correspond with the various _persons_ who
speak, the _number_ of persons, or the _time_ of speaking; as, _I_
speak, _thou_ speak_est_, the _man_ speak_eth_, or speak_s_, the _men_
speak, _I_ sp_oke_; The speak_er_ speak_s_ another speak_er's_ spe_ech_.

The third part of Etymology, which is intimately connected with the
second, will be more amply expanded in Lecture XIV, and in the
Philosophical notes; but I shall not treat largely of that branch of
derivation which consists in tracing words to foreign languages. This is
the province of the lexicographer, rather than of the philologist. It is
not the business of him who writes a practical, English grammar, to