Page:Nature and Origin of the Noun Genders of the Indo-European Languages.djvu/34

24 the notion of female, or some special female characteristic. We are brought to a different decision. They did not, in all probability, have that original signification. It is a misuse of the grammatical terminology to call these two suffixes, in general, and in every case where they appear in the Indo-European languages, by the name "feminine suffixes." They are feminine only in some cases, and, indeed, in only a comparatively small proportion of the whole number, as in words like Greek and πότνια, are they really what we ordinarily call them. Similar misuse and similar inaccuracy and inadequacy of the scientific terminology is to be found in many other cases. To mention but a single example: the suffix -to- in the Latin substantive formations such as datus, amātus, fīnītus, is called the suffix of the perfect "passive" participle. Yet the Latin has numerous -to- participles with signification that is not passive; for example, ratus, secūtus. These participles, as can readily be proved, never had, in Latin nor in the pro-ethnic Italic language nor in the Indo-European, passive meaning. The participial suffix -to- was originally used to form verbal adjectives which predicated an action as a distinguishing characteristic or peculiarity; for example, ῥυτόν is