INCOMPLETE: Witting, wotting (both in Shakspeare).

Examples:

"I wot not who hath done this thing." (Gen. xxi. 26.)

46

My master wotteth not what is in the house." (Ib. xxxix. 8.)

"There be fools alive, I wis,

Silvered o'er." (Merch. of V. ii. 9.)

“He wist not what to say, for they were sore afraid." (Mark ix. 6.)

Obs. The form I wis, which is used by some modern writers as the present of this Verb, is due to a mistake. It has arisen out of the old adverb ywis [Germ. gewiss], surely.

This verb occurs only in 3rd pers. sing. pres. subj., with imperative or optative force. Woe worth = woe befall or happen to; a form of execration. (O. E. weorthan Germ. werden, "to become, come to pass.")

=

"Woe worth the day!" (Ezek. xxx. 2.)

"Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day
That cost thy life, my gallant grey."
(Scott, Lady of the L. i.)

(Comp. "Me seemeth

NOTE.-In such phrases the noun which follows worth is a dative case, as in meseems, methinks, or in woe is me. then it is no policy." (Hen. VI. Pt. II. iif. 1.)

4. Me-thinks:-
:-

This expression is sometimes erroneously supposed to be an ungrammatical form for I think. But thinks is here an Impersonal Verb

=

(it) seems; and me is the

dative case: (it) seems to me = (O. E. pincan, "to seem.")

Lat. mihi videtur.

"My father-me-thinks I see my father!" (Haml. i. 2.)

"Me-thought I saw my late espoused saint

Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave." (Milt. Sonnet.)

Milton has also the form him thought:

"Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood." (P. R. ii. 266.) 5. Me-lists::

=

This is also an Impersonal Verb: me-lists it pleases me.

"Ambling palfrey when at need

Him listed ease his battle steed." (Marmion, i.)

Obs. It is to be observed that Shakspeare invariably uses list as a personal verb:

In O. E. the verb [lystan] is used both personally and impersonally.

This is properly an Interjection calling for silence, but it is used both by Shakspeare and Milton as the past participle of a Verb:

Obs. Compare the formation of the present I wis out of the adverb ywis [No. 2]. The same Interjection (whist!) has also become a Noun, giving name to the popular game so called.

Yclept is the past participle of the old Verb (O. E.) clypian, "to call." The prefix y is identical with the ge of the same participle in German, as gemacht, gebracht, &c.

Obs. Forms like y-clad (clothed), y-drad (dreaded), are frequent in Spenser, who was fond of archaisms. Shakspeare does not employ them, which proves that they were obsolete in his day.

8. Hight:

"The city of the Great King hight it well

(i.e. it is well named so)

Wherein eternal peace and happiness doth dwell." (Spenser, F. Q.) Hight is the past indefinite of an obsolete Verb, hatan, "to be named" (German, heissen).

Obs. 1. The 2nd pers. sing. of this tense occurs in the following couplet, cited as one of the earliest recorded specimens of English after the Conquest :

"Hatest thou [art thou named] Urse?

Have thou God's curse."

(Malediction of Archbishop Aldred, obt. 1069. [Craik, i. 193.])

Obs. 2. Hight is also used as a participle :—

"This grisly [horrible] beast which by name Lion hight

The trusty Thisbe, coming first by night,

This is a defective past participle = to be decked, adorned. (O. E. dihtan, "to order, to arrange.")

"And storied windows richly dight

Shedding a dim religious light." (Il Penseroso.)

Classification of Verbs according to Inflexion.

§ 156. It has been seen that Verbs are classified according to their mode of forming the Past Tense (§ 142).

I. Some form the Past Tense by a change of the vowel in the root: as, sing, sang; climb, clomb (Milton); crow, crew; blow, blew; come, came; read, read [pron. red].

II. Some have not only a change of vowel, in the Past Tense, but also the suffix d or t: as, tell, told; creep, crept; teach, taught; bring, brought; cleave, cleft.

III. Some use the same form for both Present and Past: as, cast, cast; put, put; shut, shut; spread, spread; thrust, thrust.

Obs. This is the case only with Verbs already in the Present Tense ending in d or t.

IV. Very many form the Past Tense by the addition of d (ed after a consonant) or t: as, love, loved; admire, admired; adorn, adorned; affright, affrighted; slip, slipped and slipt; spill, spilled and spilt.

Obs. To this class belong Verbs like build, built; send, sent; gird, girt (or girded); the forms in t arising from contraction.

§ 157. The first three classes comprise most of the old monosyllabic verbal roots, belonging all of them to the original vocabulary of the language. The fourth class-far more numerous than the other three together-comprises the more modern words, including all Verbs adopted from other languages.

The following table shows the general difference between Verbs of the first three classes and those of the fourth :

Here observe, the Verbs in the left-hand column are among the very simplest words, and would be understood. and correctly used by every person speaking English as his mother tongue. Those in the right-hand column are less common words, belonging rather to the language of books than of common conversation, and requiring a certain amount of education to enable anyone to understand and use them properly.

§ 158. Strong and Weak Verbs.-Verbs forming their Past Tense by internal change are often called STRONG

VERBS, and those forming it by means of the suffix d (ed) or t, WEAK VERBS.

$ 159. Formation of the Past Participle.-The Past Participle has one ending which belongs to itself alone, namely, -en: as

This ending is rarely found except in Verbs of Class I.

In Classes II. III. IV. the Past Participle is mostly the same as the Past Indicative: e. g.-

Obs. Many Verbs of Classes I. II. III. had originally a Past Participle in en, as clomben, foughten, sungen, slitten, borsten (burst), which has become obsolete. Also some others, while retaining the participle in en, have lost the strong form of the Past Indicative and substituted for it a form in d or t: as

§ 160. Complete List of Verbs belonging to Classes I.