Of significant nouns, by far tbe,grcater number are general or..cla,ss names; that is, they can be of tohjeeWitikiiig that all these indivi duals have certain attributes in common—as quadruped, book. The quadruped spoken of may perhaps be a horse. and here we have another class-name, applicable to the same object, but of less generality than "quadruped." Animal, again, is more general than quadruped; being applicable to a far wider class. But it is important to observe, that as the number of objects that the terms are applied to, or denote, increases, the number of attributes they imply—in other words, the amount of their meaning—diminishes. To call an object an "animal," merely implies that it is organized and is alive (with that kind of life called animal life); to call it a "quadruped," implies all this and a number of attributes in addition; and to call it a "horse" implies a still further addition.
It is to this class of words that the term common nouns is properly applicable; and the contrast to them is not proper nouns, but what might be called singular nouns, such as "God," "Providence," universe." Collective names arc such as regiment, fleet, senate, shoal. They form a subdivision of class names or common nouns; for regiment is applicable to all collections of men organ ized in a particular way.
_Names of materials are such as iron, water, sugar, wheat. These two classes appear in many cases to merge into each other. lu both the objects named consist of an aggre gation; but in collective names the parts forming the collection are thought of as indi vidual objects; as the soldiers of a regiment, the fishes composing a shoal. Substances, again, like iron, gold, water, are not made up of definite individual parts (at least to out senses); and in such as wheat, sand, the name of the individual visible part (grain of wheat, grain of sand) is derived from the name of the mass, showing that the idea of the individual is swallowed up in that of the mass.
A convenient term folr names of materials or substances is that used by German gram marians—stuff-nouns. Sometimes the same word is used as a stuff-noun, and also as a class-noun. Thus: " The cow cats grass" (stuff-noun); " the botanist studies the grasses and lies found a new grass" (class-noun); "they had fish (stuff-noun) for dinner, and con sumed four large fishes" (class-noun).
Names of materials are not, like collective nouns, a subdivision of common nouns; they belong to the contrasted class of singular nouns; and, when the substance is simple or invariable in composition, cannot be used in the plural; as gold, water, beef.
Abstract 14OU118. —In the expression "hard steel," or "the steel is hard," the word hard implies it certain quality or attribute as belonging to the steel. This quality has no existence apart from steel or some other substance; but I can withdraw (abstract) thoughts from the steel in other respects, and think of this quality as if it had an inde pendent existence. The name of this imaginary existence or abstraction is hardness. All words expressive of the qualities, actions, or states of objects, have abstract nouns corresponding to them; as brace—bravery; strike—stroke; welt—health. In opposition to abstract nouns, all others are concrete nouns—that is, the attributes implied in them are considered as embodied in (concrete, Lat. growing together) the actual existences named.