This is part of an ongoing investigation I'm doing into the use and spelling of -ise/-ize suffix verbs in British English.
Engraving by George Cruikshank - image in the public domain, details at Wikipedia
There are two sets of verbs in English which have an /aɪz/ ending:
- -ise/-ize suffix verbs - these are always spelt with a Z in the US, but everywhere else we have a choice between S and Z. Examples include: realise/realize and sympathise/sympathize. This is an open group with new verbs joining it all the time. The earlier verbs had Latin and ultimately Greek roots, but many later verbs in this group have been formed from existing English words.
- French -ise verbs, especially based on -cise, -mise, -prize, -vise. These are always spelt with an S, both here and in the US. Examples include: advise, devise, surmise, surprise. This is a largely closed group, numbering twenty or thirty verbs
So far, two things seem to be clear to me:
- The -ise/-ize suffix verbs were not used very much until the 18th century; Shakespeare used perhaps a dozen in all his works. On the other hand, use of the limited number of French -ise verbs was very popular. They were occasionally also spelt with a Z.
- From very early on The -ise/-ize suffix verbs were spelt almost exclusively with a Z, but something happened at the end of the 18th century, and the S spelling suddenly became popular in Britain.
I'm particularly interested in Tristram Shandy as it seems to epitomise this new use of -ise/-ize suffix verbs I've just mentioned.
1759 Lawrence Sterne - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Introduction
As we've seen, earlier writers don't seemed to have used -ize suffix verbs very much; But Sterne seems to have positively revelled in them, possibly inventing one or two himself. As seems quite common at this time, some French -ise verbs and their derivatives are also spelt with a Z.
Possible neologisms
None of these appear as verbs in Dr Jonson's Dictionary. Here, OED# refers to Online Etymology Dictionary (not the Oxford English Dictionary)
- apotheosize - OED# puts this at 1760 (a year after publication), Dictionary.com 1750-1760. Dr Johnson has apotheosis
- genteelize - OED# has nothing for the verb, genteel from the 1590s. Nothing in Dr Johnson
- soliliquize - OED# puts this at 1759 (the year of publication). Dr Johnson has soliloquy
Method
I first found all the -ize and -ise endings I could in the Project Gutenberg HTML version, which is very easy to search. Then I checked them all in Google Books' various versions. I used the 1819 version first as it's complete, but as not everything was there, I looked at other versions as well. The yellow boxes show which edition I found them in.
You can check these out yourself by using the book selector and clicking on one of the links. It will open search results in the relevant version in Google Books in a new tab or window (IE).
There's a very attractive facsimile version in three volumes at Archive.org, but I haven't had much success with their search facility. On the other hand they also have raw text versions which are easily searchable.
Unless specified otherwise, derivations are from Online Etymology Dictionary.
Table of Verbs
| F=French, OF=Old French, MF=Middle French, L=Latin, LL=Late Latin | ||||||
| Edition (as listed above) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Latin -ize verbs | ||||||
| philosophize | 1590s | 3 | ||||
| philosophized | 1590s | 3 | ||||
| solemnized | late 14C | 1 | ||||
| syllogize | C15: via OF, LL syllogiza-re, G sullogizesthai (Collins) | 2 | ||||
| baptized | c.1300, OF batisier (11c.), L baptizare, G baptizein | 2 | ||||
| baptizer | 1 | |||||
| baptizes | 1 | patronize | 1580s | 1 | ||
| subtilized | - (subtile late 14c., from L.) | 1 | ||||
| civilized | c.1600 | 1 | ||||
| uncrystalized | 1590s (figurative use from 1660s - double l) | 1 | ||||
| anathematize | 1560s from Fr from Latin from Greek | 1 | ||||
| harmonized | late 15C | 1 | ||||
| unmechanize | (1670s mechanic) | 1 | ||||
| rhapsodize | c.1600 | 1 | ||||
| soliloquized | 1759 (soliloquy) | 1 | moralize | c1400 | 1 | |
| genteelized | - (MF gentil 1590s) | 1 | ||||
| apotheosize | 1760 (apotheosis 1600s) | 1 | ||||
| -ation | ||||||
| organization | mid 15C | 2 | ||||
| canonization | late 14C | 1 | ||||
| French -ise verbs spelt with a Z | ||||||
| surprized | 3 | |||||
| apprized | 1 | |||||
| enterprize | S | |||||
| French -ise verbs | ||||||
| arise, -en, es | ||||||
| unadvised | ||||||
| advise, -es | ||||||
| exercise, -ed | ||||||
| rise,-en | ||||||
| despised | ||||||
| philosophised | ||||||
| franchises | ||||||
| enfranchisement | early 15C | |||||
| surprise | ||||||
| devise, -ed | ||||||
| circumcised | ||||||
| surprised | ||||||
| characterised | ||||||
Thomas Nashe
Sterne wasn't, of course, the first to coin new verbs by adding the -ize suffix to existing words. Traditionally, or at least according to the OED (and perhaps alo the gentleman in question, that honour goes to Thomas Nashe, a pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist in late Elizabethan England, who, writing about reactions to his own writing style, said:
The ploddinger sort of unlearned Zoilists about London exclaim that it is a puffed-up style, and full of profane eloquence; others object unto me the multitude of my boisterous compound words, and the often coining of Italianate verbs which end all in -ize, as mummianize, tympanize, tyrannize
Epistle to the Reader, introduction to the 1594 second edition of Christ's Tears over Jerusalem
The word ploddinger seems to be an invention of Nashe's, Zoilists were imitators of Zoilus, a Greek grammarian, Cynic philosopher, and literary critic from Amphipolis in East Macedonia famous for his carping cryticism. Nashe seems to be claiming tyrannise as one of his neologisms, but Online Etymology Dictionary has it as late 15c., from Middle French tyranniser (14c.).
I'm pretty sure, however, that we can credit him with mummianize and tympanize, as well as alchumise and paradize from The Unfortunate Traveller (1593), which don't seem to appear in any dictionaries.
Nashe has to a certain extent become the scape-goat for the tendency of creating new verbs and their derivatives by adding -ise/-ize to existing nouns and adjectives, which, far from being something new, has been going on for four hundred years or so. You can read more about this at the New York Times and Language Log, links below.
| 1593 Christ's Tears over Jerusalem | |
| tympanized | |
| 1594 The Unfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton | |
| mummianized | |
| canonize | |
| authorized | |
| paradized | |
| exorcised | |
| eternize | |
| temporizes | |
| tyranize | (NB spelling) |
| anatomize | |
| particularize | |
| memorize | |
| alchumise | |
| epitomize | |
| French -ise verbs spelt with a Z | |
| surprized | |
Links
Tristram Shandy
- Wikipedia
- Project Gutenberg
- Johnson's Dictionary at Google Books (Edinburgh 1823)
- Johnson's Dictionary Online (seems to be missing quite a lot)
At Archive.org / The Open Library
- Vol 1 facsimile
- Vol 2 facsimile
- Vol 3 facsimile
- Vol 1 raw text (searchable)
- Vol 2 raw text (searchable)
- Vol 3 raw text (searchable)
At Google Books
- London 1832 Vol 1/2
- New York 1832
- London 1761 Vol 3
- London 1762 Vol 5
- Basil 1792
- London 1819 complete
Thomas Nashe
- Wikipedia
- Project Gutenberg - The Unfortunate Traveller
- Christ's Tears PDF 1 (Oxford-Shakespeare)
- Christ's Tears PDF 2 (Oxford-Shakespeare)
- Language Log - Faults "intollerable and euer vndecent" - Nashe and -ize verbs
- Language Log - Centuries of disgust and horror? - Nashe and -ize verbs
- William Safire - New York Times - Nashe and the use of -ize to invent new words
- Piers Penniless - Google Books
- Christ's Tears - Google Books (London 1815 - reprinted from 1613 edition)