It  will  sometimes  be  found  that  the  accent  is  placed
by  the  author  quoted,  on  a  different  syllable  from  that
marked  in  the  alphabetical  series;  it  is  then  to  be  under*
stood,  that  custom  has  yaried,  or  that  the  author  has,  15
in  my  opinion,  pronounced  wrong.  Short  directions
are  sometimes  given  where  the  sound  of  letters  is  ir-
regular; and  if  they  are  sometimes  omitted,  defect  in
such  minute  observations  will  be  more  easily  excused,
than  superfluity.  30

In  the  investigation  both  9f  the  orthography  and
signification  of  words,  their  ETYMOLQg^  was  necessarily
to  be,  considered,  and  th^y  weres,^  therefore  to  be  divided
into  (primitives  and  derivatives.j  A  primitive  word  is
that  Which  can  be  traced  no  rurther  to  any  English  25
root;  thus  circumspect,  circumvent,  circumstance,  delude,
concave,  and  complicate,  though  compounds  in  the  Latin,
are  to  us  primitives.  Derivatives,  are  all  those  that
can  be  referred  to  any  word  in  English  of  greater  sim-
plicity. 30

The  derivatives  I  have  referred  to  their  primitives,
with  an  accuracy  sometimes  needless;  for  who  does
not  see  that  remoteness  comes  from  remote,  lovely  from
love,  concavity  from  concave,  and  demonstrative  from
demonstrate?  But  this  grammatical  exuberance  the  35
scheme  of  my  work  did  not  allow  me  to  repress.  It  is
of  great  importance,  in  examining  the  general  fabric


PBEFACE  TO  THE  ENGLISH  DICTIONARY    35

of  a  language,  to  trace  one  word  from  another,  by  noting
the  usiial  modes  of  derivation  and  inflection;^  and  uni-
formity must  be  preserved  in  systematical  works ;  though
sometimes  at  the  expense  of  particular  propriety.
