Whi885__Whitney_Roots-ACCENTED.pdf

PREFACE. Xi
come to assume a primary aspect in the language, even
though of incontestably secondary origin: such as the gerundives
in -tavya and Vedic -tva (from -tu), and -anīya
(from -ana), the nomina agentis in -in, and the various formations
in ya (among which hardly any, if any, are really
primary). These are in general placed next after the forms
from which they are presumably derived. Apart from this,
the order of arrangement intended to be pursued is in the
main the alphabetic order of the suffixes, the radical stems
or those without suffix standing at the head; but such an
arrangement could not be very strictly carried out, nor does
any particular importance belong to it, considering how
easily the columns may be glanced over to verify the presence
or absence of any given formation; and some inconsistencies
will doubtless be found. Reduplicated stems are
put after the others, and last of all the ouasi­primitive formations
from (secondary, or rarely primary or tertiary) conjugation­stems.
Notation of the period of occurrence is
made in the same way as for the verb­forms. A hyphen
put before a stem indicates that it has not been found
quotable otherwise than as posterior member of a compound;
one following a stem (much more rarely) shows it to occur
only as prior member of a compound, or in derivative stems
or in denominative conjugation.
Throughout the whole work, accent­signs are applied
only where the word is found actually so marked in accentuated
texts.
It is, of course, impossible to draw the line everywhere
between the derivatives of a root and words that do not
belong to it; since etymology is from beginning to end a
matter of balancing probabilities, and thick­set with uncertainties
and chances of error. It has been my intention
to err rather upon the side of liberality of inclusion than the
opposite — and certainly I have in not a few cases put under
certain roots words as to whose connection with those roots
I have great misgivings; but doubtless also there are words
omitted, by oversight or by failure of judgment, which
ought to have been included. All such errors, it is hoped,