An English Grammar. James Witt Sewell
book
sailor
child
sheep
ship
ruffian
4. Using a dictionary, tell from what word each of these abstract nouns is derived:—
sight
speech
motion
pleasure
patience
friendship
deceit
bravery
height
width
wisdom
regularity
advice
seizure
nobility
relief
death
raid
honesty
judgment
belief
occupation
justice
service
trail
feeling
choice
simplicity
SPECIAL USES OF NOUNS.
Nouns change by use.
13. By being used so as to vary their usual meaning, nouns of one class may be made to approach another class, or to go over to it entirely. Since words alter their meaning so rapidly by a widening or narrowing of their application, we shall find numerous examples of this shifting from class to class; but most of them are in the following groups. For further discussion see the remarks on articles (p. 119).
Proper names transferred to common use.
14. Proper nouns are used as common in either of two ways:—
(1) The origin of a thing is used for the thing itself: that is, the name of the inventor may be applied to the thing invented, as a davy, meaning the miner's lamp invented by Sir Humphry Davy; the guillotine, from the name of Dr. Guillotin, who was its inventor. Or the name of the country or city from which an article is derived is used for the article: as china, from China; arras, from a town in France; port (wine), from Oporto, in Portugal; levant and morocco (leather).
Some of this class have become worn by use so that at present we can scarcely discover the derivation from the form of the word; for example, the word port, above. Others of similar character are calico, from Calicut; damask, from Damascus; currants, from Corinth; etc.
(2) The name of a person or place noted for certain qualities is transferred to any person or place possessing those qualities; thus—
Hercules and Samson were noted for their strength, and we call a very strong man a Hercules or a Samson. Sodom was famous for wickedness, and a similar place is called a Sodom of sin.
A Daniel come to judgment!—Shakespeare.
If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a Fourier, it imposes its classification on other men, and lo! a new system.—Emerson.
Names for things in bulk altered for separate portions.
15. Material nouns may be used as class names. Instead of considering the whole body of material of which certain uses are made, one can speak of particular uses or phases of the substance; as—
(1) Of individual objects made from metals or other substances capable of being wrought into various shapes. We know a number of objects made of iron. The material iron embraces the metal contained in them all; but we may say, "The cook made the irons hot," referring to flat-irons; or, "The sailor was put in irons" meaning chains of iron. So also we may speak of a glass to drink from or to look into; a steel to whet a knife on; a rubber for erasing marks; and so on.
(2) Of classes or kinds of the same substance. These are the same in material, but differ in strength, purity, etc. Hence it shortens speech to make the nouns plural, and say teas, tobaccos, paints, oils, candies, clays, coals.
(3) By poetical use, of certain words necessarily singular in idea, which are made plural, or used as class nouns, as in the following:—
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
From all around— Earth and her waters, and the depths of air— Comes a still voice. —Bryant.
Their airy ears
The winds have stationed on the mountain peaks. —Percival.
(4) Of detached portions of matter used as class names; as stones, slates, papers, tins, clouds, mists, etc.
Personification of abstract ideas.
16. Abstract nouns are frequently used as proper names by being personified; that is, the ideas are spoken of as residing in living beings. This is a poetic usage, though not confined to verse.
Next Anger rushed; his eyes, on fire, In lightnings owned his secret stings. —Collins.
Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.—Byron.
Death, his mask melting like a nightmare dream, smiled.—Hayne.
Traffic has lain down to rest; and only Vice and Misery, to prowl or to moan like night birds, are abroad.—Carlyle.
A halfway class of words. Class nouns in use, abstract in meaning.
17. Abstract nouns are made half abstract by being spoken of in the plural.
They are not then pure abstract nouns, nor are they common class nouns. For example, examine this:—
The arts differ from the sciences in this, that their power is founded not merely on facts which can be communicated, but on dispositions which require to be created.—Ruskin.
When it is said that art differs from science, that the power of art is founded on fact, that disposition is the thing to be created, the words italicized are pure abstract nouns; but in case an art or a science, or the arts and sciences, be spoken of, the abstract idea is partly lost. The words preceded by the article a, or made plural, are still names of abstract ideas, not material things; but they widen the application to separate kinds of art or different branches of science. They are neither class nouns nor pure abstract nouns: they are more properly called half abstract.
Test this in the following sentences:—
Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so.—Emerson.
And still, as each repeated pleasure tired, Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired.—Goldsmith.
But ah! those pleasures, loves, and joys Which I too keenly taste, The Solitary can despise. —Burns.
All these, however, were mere terrors