The subject of history of English

39. Vocabulary of Early Modern English

The vocabulary of English expanded greatly during the early modern period. Writers were well aware of this and argued about it. Some were in favour of loanwords to express new concepts, especially from Latin. Others advocated the use of existing English words, or new compounds of them, for this purpose. Others advocated the revival of obsolete words and the adoption of regional dialect.

Whereas words of foreign origins enriched the English vocabulary to a great extent, the inner factors -that is, various ways of word building were also very actively used. New words appeared in the language built by all traditional word building process – derivation, compounding, semantic word building and a new, specifically English way of making new words arose – zero-derivation, or conversion.

Derivation can be observed in all parts of speech. The most productive suffixes of the period were: noun-suffixes: -er trader, explorer;

During this period the former suffix -our (French in origin) acquired the same form -er or turned into -or. Interpretour – interpreter robbour – robber auditour – auditor

The suffix – ster ( from femenine -estre webbstre, spinnestre, beggestre) acquired negative connotations and no longer is indicating the gender

gamester, trickster, gangster
Adjective suffixes of that were used at the times were of native origin as well as borrowed. The native suffixes are:

-y stumpy, wavy, haughty, saucy ,racy ,brassy ,

-ful bashful ,beautiful, delightful ,grateful.

In Shakespeare’s time the productivity of this suffix is great; the words with it include such as equalness, loathness, tameness, freeness, solemness, valiantness, rawness etc. which, though still registered in dictionaries are no longer in active use and are prevalently used either with other derivational morphemes, or without suffix at all. The morpheme -man, formerly a part of numerous compounds turns into a semi-suffix, which until recently was not marked with a pronounced gender meaning, probably because all the marked professions were men’s, and the question of women in profession did not arise. Boatman spokesman

The prefixes out-, over- and under- known in the language from the oldest times give a great number of new coinages out- is used to form many transitive verbs denoting a going beyond, surpassing, or outdoing in the particular action indicated: outrow 1520-30 outbid 1580-90 outbrave 1580-90 outbreak 1595-1605 while -age of the same origin may be used in either combination: luggage 1590-1600 shortage 1865-70 leakage 1480-90 rampage 1705-15

Suffix -able/- ible came into the English language in Middle English as a part of a great number of French adjectives (amyable, agreable, charitable, mesurable, honurable e tc .), but was hardly used with the stems of native English origin). In Early New English it is equally productive with stems of either origin: answerable 1540-50 approachable 1565-75 arguable 1605-15 bearable 1540-50 capable 1555-65

Words belonging to various parts of speech are found here. Some preserved Latin grammatical morphemes which are no longer felt as such the word belongs to any part of speech irrespective of the part of speech suffix. Here are some examples of the borrowings of the period:

Nouns: amplitude 1540-50 applause 1590-1600 class As far as verbs are concerned, some distinctive morphemes are to be mentioned here. A considerable number of verbs had the suffix -ate (that was the suffix of Participle II of the verbs of the 1st conjugation) - in English it has nothing to do with the non-finite forms of the verbs marker, and is generally perceived as the verbal suffix: accommodate accumulate agitate