Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/76

64 , dag, 'day,' verðr, 'meal;' and in the second, we have the Old Northern Nattverðn, 'night-meal;' while the hverv in Solhverv is derived from the Old Northern hverfa, 'to turn round.'

Many compounds have been borrowed directly from German; as, Slobrok (Schlafrock), 'dressing-gown;' Mistbænk (Mistbeet), 'dung-heap, hot-bed.'

The principal terminal affixes which enter into the composition of nouns have been already treated of, and we will, therefore, only indicate the special meaning attached to some of these terminations.

1. ...Heit, '...hood,' ...skap, '...ship,' the former of which is of German, and the latter of Northern origin, are not of precisely the same significance—the first conveying the idea of a property or a quality, and the latter a condition, as Vildhed, 'wildness' (ferocity), Vildskab, 'state of unculture, misrule.'

2. Dom (Old Northern domr, a thing, or position of importance) indicates a power, as Kongedom or Kongedömme, 'kingdom,' Fyrstendömme (Fyrst, 'a prince'), 'principality.'

3. Else sometimes indicates a property, as Tykkelse, 'thickness;' but more frequently an action, as Anvendelse, 'application.' A similar idea is conveyed by the termination ning, as Skrivning, 'writing.' These two terminations serve to form nouns from the corresponding verbs, and thus constitute an important characteristic of Dano-Norwegian, distinguishing it from Swedish, in which the participles, and not the root of the verb, serve as the basis of words. The German mode of construction, which admits of using