Your examination of the family trees of words will be practical, rather than highly scholastic, in nature.  You need not track every word in the dictionary to the den of its remote parentage.  Nor need you bother your head with the name of the distant ancestor.  But in the case of the large number of words that have a numerous kindred you should learn to detect the inherited strain.  You will then know that the word is the brother or cousin of certain other words of your acquaintance, and this knowledge will apprise you of qualities in it with which you should reckon.  To this extent only must you make yourself a student of verbal genealogy.

EXERCISE — Blood

(Simple exercises in tracing blood relationships among words are given at the end of the chapter.  Therefore the exercises assigned here are of a special character.)

1.  Each of the following groups is made up of related words, but the relationship is somewhat disguised.  Consult the dictionary for each word, and learn all you can as to (a) its source, (b) the influence (as passing through an intermediate language) that gave it its present form, (c) the course of its development into its present meaning.

Captain Cathedral Governor
Capital Chaise Gubernatorial
Decapitate Chair
Chef Shay Guardian
Chieftain Ward
                        Camp
Cavalry Campaign Guarantee
Chivalry Champion Warrant

Camera Inept Incipient
Chamber Apt Receive

Serrated Inimical Poor
Sierra Enemy Pauper

Influence Espionage Work
Influenza Spy Wrought
                                          Playwright
Isolate
Insular

2.  The variety of sources for modern English is indicated by the following list.  Do not seek for blood kinsmen of these particular words, but think of all the additional words you can that have come into English from Indian, Spanish, French, any other language spoken today.

Alphabet (Greek) Piano (Italian)
Folio (Latin) Car (Norman)
Boudoir (French) Rush (German)
Binnacle (Portuguese) Sky (Icelandic)
Anger (Old Norse) Yacht (Dutch)
Isinglass (Low German) Hussar (Hungarian)
Slogan (Celtic) Samovar (Russian)
Polka (Polish) Chess (Persian)
Shekel (Hebrew) Tea (Chinese)
Algebra (Arabic) Kimono (Japanese)
Puttee (Hindoo) Tattoo (Tahitian)
Boomerang (Australian) Voodoo (African)
Potato (Haytian) Skunk (American Indian)
Guano (Peruvian) Buncombe (American)
Renegade (Spanish)