There is
surely no doubt that, in accenting a prefix rather than the root of the
word, we lose a certain amount of force. "Con-template," for instance,
is not nearly so strong a word as "contemp-late." We say an
"il-lustrated" book or the "_Il-lustrated London News_" because we do
not require any particular force in the epithet; but when the sense
demands a word with colour and emotion in it, we say the "illus-trious"
statesman, the "illus-trious" poet, throwing into relief the essential
element in the word, the "lustre." What a paltry word would
"tri-umphant" be in comparison with "trium-phant!" But the larger our
list of examples, the more capricious does our accentuation seem, the
more evidently subject to mere accidents of fashion. There is scarcely a
trace of consistent or rational principle in the matter. To make a merit
of one practice, and find in the other a subject for contemptuous
criticism, is simply childish.
Mere slovenliness of pronunciation is a totally different matter. For
instance, the use of "most" for "almost" is distinctly, if not a
vulgarism, at least a colloquialism. It may be of ancient origin; it may
have crossed in the _Mayflower_ for aught I know; but the overwhelming
preponderance of ancient and modern usage is certainly in favour of
prefixing the "al," and there is a clear advantage in having a special
word for this special idea.
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