The Grammar of English Grammars. Goold Brown
in d or t, from verbs ending in ee, ll, or ss, (as fled from flee, sold from sell, told from tell, dwelt from dwell, spelt from spell, spilt from spill, shalt from shall, wilt from will, blest from bless, past from pass,) are exceptions to the foregoing rule. 2. If the word pontiff is properly spelled with two Effs, its eight derivatives are also exceptions to this rule; for they are severally spelled with one; as, pontific, pontifical, pontificate, &c. 3. The words skillful, skillfully, willful, willfully, chillness, tallness, dullness, and fullness, have generally been allowed to drop the second l, though all of them might well be made to conform to the general rule, agreeably to the orthography of Webster.
RULE VII.—RETAINING.
Words ending with any double letter, preserve it double in all derivatives formed from them by means of prefixes: as, see, foresee; feoff, enfeoff; pass, repass; press, depress; miss, amiss; call, recall; stall, forestall; thrall, inthrall; spell, misspell; tell, foretell; sell, undersell; add, superadd; snuff, besnuff; swell, overswell.
OBSERVATION.—The words enroll, unroll, miscall, befall, befell, bethrall, reinstall, disinthrall, fulfill, and twibill, are very commonly written with one l, and made exceptions to this rule; but those authors are in the right who retain the double letter.
RULE VIII.—FINAL LL.
Final ll is peculiar to monosyllables and their compounds, with the few derivatives formed from such roots by prefixes; consequently, all other words that end in l, must be terminated with a single l: as, cabal, logical, appal, excel, rebel, refel, dispel, extol, control, mogul, jackal, rascal, damsel, handsel, tinsel, tendril, tranquil, gambol, consul.
OBSERVATION.—The words annul, until, distil, extil, and instil, are also properly spelled with one l; for the monosyllables null, till, and still are not really their roots, but rather derivatives, or contractions of later growth. Webster, however, prefers distill, extill, and instill with ll; and some have been disposed to add the other two.
RULE IX.—FINAL E.
The final e of a primitive word, when this letter is mute or obscure, is generally omitted before an additional termination beginning with a vowel: as, remove, removal; rate, ratable; force, forcible; true, truism; rave, raving; sue, suing; eye, eying; idle, idling; centre, centring.
EXCEPTIONS.—1. Words ending in ce or ge, retain the e before able or ous, to preserve the soft sounds of c and g: as, trace, traceable; change, changeable; outrage, outrageous. 2. So, from shoe, we write shoeing, to preserve the sound of the root; from hoe, hoeing, by apparent analogy; and, from singe, singeing; from swinge, swingeing; from tinge, tingeing; that they may not be confounded with singing, swinging, and tinging. 3. To compounds and prefixes, as firearms, forearm, anteact, viceagent, the rule does not apply; and final ee remains double, by Rule 6th, as in disagreeable, disagreeing.
RULE X.—FINAL E.
The final e of a primitive word is generally retained before an additional termination beginning with a consonant: as, pale, paleness; edge, edgeless; judge, judgeship; lodge, lodgement; change, changeful; infringe, infringement.
EXCEPTIONS.—1. When the e is preceded by a vowel, it is sometimes omitted; as in duly, truly, awful, argument; but much more frequently retained; as in dueness, trueness, blueness, bluely, rueful, dueful, shoeless, eyeless. 2. The word wholly is also an exception to the rule, for nobody writes it wholely. 3. Some will have judgment, abridgment, and acknowledgment, to be irreclaimable exceptions; but I write them with the e, upon the authority of Lowth, Beattie, Ainsworth, Walker, Cobb, Chalmers, and others: the French "jugement," judgement, always retains the e.
RULE XI—FINAL Y.
The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a consonant, is generally changed into i before an additional termination: as, merry, merrier, merriest, merrily, merriment; pity, pitied, pities, pitiest, pitiless, pitiful, pitiable; contrary, contrariness, contrarily.
EXCEPTIONS.—1. This rule applies to derivatives, but not to compounds: thus, we write merciful, and mercy-seat; penniless, and pennyworth; scurviness, and scurvy-grass; &c. But ladyship and goodyship, being unlike secretariship and suretiship; handicraft and handiwork,[116] unlike handygripe and handystroke; babyship and babyhood, unlike stateliness and likelihood; the distinction between derivatives and compounds, we see, is too nice a point to have been always accurately observed. 2. Before ing or ish, the y is retained to prevent the doubling of i: as, pity, pitying; baby, babyish. 3. Words ending in ie, dropping the e by Rule 9th, change the i into y, for the same reason: as, die, dying; vie, vying; lie, lying.
RULE XII—FINAL Y.
The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a vowel, should not be changed into i before any additional termination: as, day, days; key, keys; guy, guys; valley, valleys; coy, coyly; cloy, cloys, cloyed; boy, boyish, boyhood; annoy, annoyer, annoyance; joy, joyless, joyful.
EXCEPTIONS.—1. From lay, pay, say, and stay, are formed laid, paid, said, and staid; but the regular words, layed, payed, stayed, are sometimes used. 2. Raiment, contracted from arrayment, is never written with the y. 3. Daily is more common than the regular form dayly; but gayly, gayety, and gayness, are justly superseding gaily and gaiety.
RULE XIII.—IZE AND ISE.
Words ending in ize or ise sounded alike, as in wise and size, generally take the z in all such as are essentially formed by means of the termination; and the s in monosyllables, and all such as are essentially formed by means of prefixes: as, gormandise, apologize, brutalize, canonize, pilgrimize, philosophize, cauterize, anathematize, sympathize, disorganize, with z;[117] rise, arise, disguise, advise, devise, supervise, circumcise, despise, surmise, surprise, comprise, compromise, enterprise, presurmise, with s.
EXCEPTIONS.—1. Advertise, catechise, chastise, criticise,[118] exercise, exorcise, and merchandise, are most commonly written with s and size, assize, capsize, analyze, overprize, detonize, and recognize, with z. How many of them are real exceptions to the rule, it is difficult to say. 2. Prise, a thing taken, and prize, to esteem; apprise, to inform, and apprize, to value, or appraise, are often written either way, without this distinction of meaning, which some wish to establish. 3. The want of the foregoing rule has also made many words variable, which ought, unquestionably, to conform to the general principle.
RULE XIV.—COMPOUNDS.
Compounds generally retain the orthography of the simple words which compose them: as, wherein, horseman, uphill, shellfish, knee-deep, kneedgrass, kneading-trough, innkeeper, skylight, plumtree, mandrill.
EXCEPTIONS.—1. In permanent compounds, or in any derivatives of which, they are not the roots, the words full and all drop one l; as, handful, careful, fulfil, always, although, withal; in temporary