ADJECTIVE (Lat. adjcctivum, from ad. to jacere, to throw, add, literal translation of the Gk.ilriBerm6v, epithet ikon, something added). One of the parts of speech in grammar, a word joined to a substantive to extend its meaning and to limit its application. When tall is joined to man there are more properties suggested to the mind by the compound tall man than by the simple name mať: hut tall man is not applicable to so many individuals as man, for all men that are not tall are excluded. Adjectives are vari ously classified. The following classification is simple and sufficiently complete: Descriptive adjectives, or adjectives of quality and of quan tity, and pronominal adjectives. The articles (q.v.) are sometimes included in this class. Nouns, or names of things, are often used in English as adjectives; thus,"we say a silver chain, a stone wall. In such expressions as "income-tax assess ment bill," income plays the part of an adjective to tax, which is, in the first place, a noun; the two together then form a sort of compound adjec tive to assessment ; and the three, taken together, a still more compound adjective to bill, which, syntactically, is the only noun in the expression.
Languages differ much in their way of using adjectives. In English the usual place of the adjective, when it is not in the predicate, is before the noun. This is also the case in Ger man; but in French and Italian it may follow. In these languages, again, the adjective is varied for gender and number, and in the German for case also. In English it is now invariable, and in this simplicity there is a decided superiority; for in modern languages these changes in the ad jective serve no purpose. The only modification of which the modern English adjective is capable is for degrees of comparison.