A Grammar of the English Tongue - ESL Teachers Board

A Grammar of the English Tongue 26All adjectives may be compared by more and most, even when they havecomparatives and superlatives regularly formed; as, fair, fairer, or morefair; fairest, or most fair.In adjectives that admit a regular comparison, the comparative more isoftener used than the superlative most, as more fair is oftener written forfairer, than most fair for fairest.The comparison of adjectives is very uncertain; and being much regulatedby commodiousness of utterance, or agreeableness of sound, is not easilyreduced to rules.Monosyllables are commonly compared.Polysyllables, or words of more than two syllables, are seldom comparedotherwise than by more and most, as, deplorable, more deplorable, mostdeplorable.Dissyllables are seldom compared if they terminate in some, as fulsome,toilsome; in ful, as, careful, spleenful, dreadful; in ing, as trifling,charming; in ous, as porous; in less, as, careless, harmless; in ed, aswretched; in id, as candid; in al, as mortal; in ent, as recent, fervent; in ain,as certain; in ive, as missive; in dy, as woody; in fy, as puffy; in ky, asrocky, except lucky; in my, as roomy; in ny, as skinny; in py, as ropy,except happy; in ry, as hoary.Some comparatives and superlatives are yet found in good writers formedwithout regard to the foregoing rules; but in a language subjected so littleand so lately to grammar, such anomalies must frequently occur.So shady is compared by Milton.She in shadiest covert hid, Tun'd her nocturnal note. Par. Lost.And virtuous.