The Comparison of Adjectives
The comparative degree of adjectives is formed by adding er, the superlative by adding est, to the positive; as, fair, fairer, fairest; lovely, lovelier, loveliest; sweet, sweeter, sweetest; low, lower, lowest; high, higher, highest.
Some words are irregularly compared; as, good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; little, less, least; near, nearer, next; much, more, most; many (for moe), more (for moer) most (for moest); late, later, latest or last.
Some comparatives form a superlative by adding, most, as nether, nethermost; outer, outermost; under, undermost; up, upper, uppermost; fore, former, foremost.
Most is sometimes added to a substantive, as, topmost, southmost.
Many adjectives do not admit of comparison by terminations, and are only compared by more and most, as, benevolent, more benevolent, most benevolent.
All adjectives may be compared by more and most, even when they have comparatives and superlatives regularly formed; as, fair, fairer, or more fair; fairest, or most fair.
In adjectives that admit a regular comparison, the comparative more is oftener used than the superlative most, as more fair is oftener written for fairer, than most fair for fairest.
The comparison of adjectives is very uncertain; and being much regulated by commodiousness of utterance, or agreeableness of sound, is not easily reduced to rules.
Monosyllables are commonly compared.
Polysyllables, or words of more than two syllables, are seldom compared otherwise than by more and most, as, deplorable, more deplorable, most deplorable.
Dissyllables are seldom compared if they terminate in some, as fulsome, toilsome; in ful, as, careful, spleenful, dreadful; in ing, as trifling, charming; in ous, as porous; in less, as, careless, harmless; in ed, as wretched; in id, as candid; in al, as mortal; in ent, as recent, fervent; in ain, as certain; in ive, as missive; in dy, as woody; in fy, as puffy; in ky, as rocky, except lucky; in my, as roomy; in ny, as skinny; in py, as ropy, except happy; in ry, as hoary.
Some comparatives and superlatives are yet found in good writers formed without regard to the foregoing rules; but in a language subjected so little and so lately to grammar, such anomalies must frequently occur.
So shady is compared by Milton.
She in shadiest covert hid,
Tun’d her nocturnal note. Par. Lost.
And virtuous.
What she wills to say or do,
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best. Par. Lost.
So trifling by Ray, who is indeed of no great authority.
It is not so decorous, in respect of God, that he should immediately do all the meanest and triflingest things himself, without making use of any inferior or subordinate minister. Ray on the Creation.
Famous, by Milton.
I shall be nam’d among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals. Milton’s Agonistes.
Inventive, by Ascham.
Those have the inventivest heads for all purposes, and roundest tongues in all matters. Ascham’s Schoolmaster.
Mortal, by Bacon.
The mortalest poisons practised by the West Indians, have some mixture of the blood, fat, or flesh of man. Bacon.
Natural, by Wotton.
I will now deliver a few of the properest and naturalest considerations that belong to this piece. Wotton’s Architecture.
Wretched, by Jonson.
The wretcheder are the contemners of all helps; such as presuming on their own naturals, deride diligence, and mock at terms when they understand not things. Ben Jonson.
Powerful, by Milton.
We have sustain’d one day in doubtful fight,
What heav’n’s great king hath pow’rfullest to send
Against us from about his throne. Par. Lost.
The termination in ish may be accounted in some sort a degree of comparison, by which the signification is diminished below the positive, as black, blackish, or tending to blackness; salt, saltish, or having a little taste of salt; they therefore admit no comparison. This termination is seldom added but to words expressing sensible qualities, nor often to words of above one syllable, and is scarcely used in the solemn or sublime style.