those in ficus, have no comparative and superlative, at least they are not found in our writers. Adjectives compounded with loquus (from loqui), such as grandiloquus, vaniloquus, are said to form their degrees of comparison from loquens, but no instance of the kind occurs; in Plautus, however, we find mendaciloquius, and confidentiloquius.

CHAP. XXVI.

COMPARISON BY ADVERBS AND INCREASED COMPARISON.

[§ 106.] 1. INSTEAD of the peculiar forms of the comparative and superlative, we sometimes find a circumlocution, magis and maxime, or adverbs of a similar meaning (as summe), being added to the positive. This rarely occurs in the case of adjectives which form their degrees of comparison in the regular way, and for the most part only in poetry (Horace, e. g., uses magis beatus and magis aptus); but where the regular or grammatical comparison cannot be used, its place is supplied by circumlocution. (See below, § 114.)

[§ 107.] 2. A degree is also expressed by the adverbs admodum, bene, apprime, imprimis, sane, oppido, valde. and multum, and by the particle per, which is united with the adjective (or adverb) into one word, as in perdifficilis (though per is sometimes separated by some intervening word, e. g. per mihi difficilis locus), and, like sane, it is made still more emphatic by the addition of quam, e. g. locus perquam difficilis, an extremely difficult passage. Generally speaking, all simple adjectives, provided their meaning admits of an increase or decrease, may become strengthened by being compounded with per. Some few (especially in late writers) are increased in the same way by being compounded with prae, e. g. praedives, praepinguis, praelongus. Adjectives to which per or prae is prefixed, admit of no further comparison; praeclarus alone is treated like a simple adjective.

Note. Oppido, for the etymology of which we must refer to the dictionary, is of rare occurrence, and belongs to the more ancient language, though it is now and then used by Cicero, e. g. oppido ridiculus, and increased by quam: oppido quam pauci. Multum also is but rarely used in this way. Valde is indeed frequent in Cicero; but it has a peculiar and ethical shade of meaning, and is rarely used in the prose of later times.

[S 108.] 3. When the adverb etiam (still) is added to the comparative, and longe or multo (far) to the superlative, the sense of the degrees is enhanced. Vel, even, and quam, as much as possible, likewise serve to denote an increase of the meaning expressed by the superlative. Both words have acquired this signification by ellipsis: vel by the ellipsis of the positive, e. g. Cicero vel optimus oratorum Romanorum; i. e. Cicero, a good or rather the very best of Roman orators (so also vel with a comparative in the only passage of Cicero where it is known to occur, De Orat. i. 17.: ingenium vel majus,); quam, by the ellipsis of posse, which however is frequently added to it; e. g. quam maximum potest militum numerum colligit; quam maximas possum tibi gratias ago. As these words increase the sense, so paulum or paulo, paululum or paululo, on the other hand, diminish it, as paulo doctior, only a little more learned. Aliquanto increases the sense, and has an affirmative power; it may be expressed by "considerably" or "much." (See Chap. LXXIV. 15.)

CHAP. XXVII.

IRREGULAR AND DEFECTIVE COMPARISON.

[§ 109.] 1. SOME adjectives make their degrees of comparison from obsolete forms, or take them from other words of a similar

66

Note. Multus and plurimus as numerals are used only in the plural. In the singular multus is equivalent to "manifold," or great," as multus labor, multa cura, and sometimes plurimus has the same sense, e. g. plurimam salutem dico. Poets, however, use the singular multus and plurimus also in the sense of the plural, e. g. multa and plurima avis, i. e. multae, plurimae ayes, a great many birds; multa canis, many dogs. Of the comparative the neuter only occurs in the nom. and accus. singular (plus), and is used as a substantive; in the genitive pluris, and ablat. plure, with the ellipsis of pretii or pretio, it is used with verbs of value, in the sense of "for more," or at a higher price." The plural is complete, gen. plurium (better than plurum); but the neuter is commonly plura, and rarely pluria. (See §§ 65, 66.) The superlative plerique is derived from the obsolete plerusque (see § 134.), and has no genitive. In ordinary language plerique only means most people," or "the majority;" but plurimi both "most people" and "a great many." All writers, however, do not observe, this difference. Nepos often uses plerique in the sense of "a great many," and Tacitus quite reverses the significations; comp. Hist. i. 86. and iii. 81., where plerique is followed by plures, and iv. 84., where we read: Deum ipsum multi Aesculapium, quidam Osirim, plerique Jovem, plurimi Ditem patrem conjectant. The sense of plerique is sometimes enhanced by the addition of omnes, as plerique omnes, by far the greater number.

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[§ 110.] 2. The following adjectives have a double irregular superlative:

superior,

supremus and summus.

posterior,

postremus and postumus.

(Super or superus), a, um, (Poster or posterus), a, um, Note. The forms enclosed in brackets are either not found at all, as poster, posterus, or occur only in obsolete Latin, which, however, does not prevent the use of the oblique cases and of the other genders. Exter signifies "being without," and the plural exteri, foreigners; inferus, "being below," superus, “being above,” e. g. mare superum and inferum, the two seas which surround Italy. Posterus (that it once existed is clear from praeposterus) signifies that which succeeds or follows, but the plur. posteri, descendants. The superlative extimus is much less common than extremus, and postumus occurs only in the sense of a last or posthumous child.

[§ 111.] 3. There are some forms of the comparative and superlative which have no adjective for their positive, but an adverb which is derived from an adjective, and has the signification of a preposition.

The following, on the other hand, have neither an adjective nor an adverb for their positive:

deterior,
ocior,

potior,
prior,

deterrimus.

ocissimus.

potissimus.

primus.

Note. Deterior and deterrimus may be compared, but not confounded, with pejor and pessimus. Pejor generally means worse than something which is bad," and is therefore used as comparative of malus, whereas deterior means something which is inferior, or worse than something which is good, so that it is a descending, just as melior is an ascending comparative of bonus. Potior and potissimus are derived from the obsolete positive potis (see § 103), and prior may be traced to the adverb prae.

[§ 112.] 4. The following adjectives have a superlative, but no comparative:

Falsus, falsissimus; diversus, diversissimus; inclitus, inclitissimus; novus, novissimus; sacer, sacerrimus; vetus (the comparative is supplied by vetustior), veterrimus (vetustissimus), and some participles which are used as adjectives, as meritus, meri

tissimus.

[§ 113.] 5. Most adjectives in ilis and bilis derived from verbs, together with those in ilis derived from substantives (see § 250.), have no superlative. To these we must add the following: agrestis, alacer, ater, caecus, declivis, proclivis, deses (comparative desidior), jejunus, longinquus, propinquus, protervus, salutaris, satur, surdus, teres, and vulgaris. In like manner there is no superlative of adolescens, juvenis (comparative junior contracted from juvenior), and senex (comparative senior), which words are regarded as adjectives.

Note. The verbal adjectives amabilis, fertilis, nobilis, ignobilis, mobilis, and utilis, however, have their degrees of comparison complete.

6. The two adjectives, anterior and sequior, exist only as comparatives. The neuter of the latter, sequius, and the adverb secius (otherwise), differ only in their orthography.

[§ 114.] 7. Many adjectives have no degrees of comparison at all, because their signification precludes comparison; such are those which denote a substance, origin, possession, or a definite time; e. g. aureus, adamantinus, Graecus, peregrinus, equinus, socialis, paternus, aestivus, hibernus, vivus.

Note. Dexter and sinister seem likewise to belong to this class; the comparatives dexterior, sinisterior, and the irregular superlative dextimus, do indeed occur (sinistĭmus is mentioned, but its use cannot be proved), but without differing in meaning from the positive. Dexter also signifies skilful, and in this sense dexterior is used as a real comparative.

Others do not form the comparative and superlative in the usual grammatical manner by the terminations ior and issimus, but by the adverbs magis and maxime, which are put before the adjective, and by the particles mentioned above. Such adjectives are:

a) Those in which the termination us is preceded by a vowel, as idoneus, dubius, necessarius, noxius, arduus, ingenuus: comparative magis necessarius, superlative maxime necessarius, &c. In qu however, the u is not regarded as a vowel (see above, § 5.); hence antiquus, e. g., has its regular comparative, antiquior, and superlative antiquissimus.

Note. As this rule depends entirely upon euphony, respecting which opinions differ, we cannot be surprised to find exceptions. Adjectives in uus in particular frequently make the superlative in the regular grammatical way. Cicero and Suetonius use assiduissimus, Sallust, strenuissimus, and Ovid, exiguissimus and vacuissimus, while the comparative of these words occurs only in much inferior authorities. Adjectives in ius are found much more seldom with the grammatical degrees of comparison than those in uus, and whenever they do occur, they reject one i, as noxior, in Seneca, de Clem. 13.; industrior in the Pseudo-Cicero, De Domo, 11.; egregius in Juvenal, xi. 12. The only superlatives that occur are egregiissimus, in Gellius, and piissimus very frequently in the silver age of the language, in Curtius, Seneca, and Tacitus, though Cicero had censured the triumvir Antony for having used this wholly un-Latin form. (Philip. xiii. 9.) The forms (piens) pientes and pientissimus are found in inscriptions only. Among the adjectives in čus there are no exceptions, and it is only the later jurists that use the comparative idoneor for the inharmonious idoneior.

b) Many adjectives compounded with substantives and verbs, e. g. degener, inops, magnanimus, consonus, foedifrăgus, pestifer; and those which have the derivative terminations icus, idus, ŭlus, ālis, īlis, bundus, e. g. modicus, credulus, trepidus, rabidus, rubidus, garrulus, sedulus, exitialis, mortalis, principalis, anilis, hostilis, scurrilis, furibundus.

Note. This remark cannot form a rule, for there are a great many compounded adjectives and derivatives like the above, which have their degrees of comparison; for example, those compounded with mens and cor: amens, demens, concors, discors, vecors, and the adjectives ending in dicus,. ficus, and volus, which were mentioned above. (§ 105. c). Although it is useful to classify the whole mass of such words under certain divisions, still the dictionary can never be dispensed with.