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Frederic E. Clements 



alone needs to be taken into account. Indeed, syntactic compo- 

 sition must be sedulously avoided by biologists, if confusion is 

 to be prevented, and the few syntactic compounds already in 

 existence in nomenclature should be made to conform to the 

 rules for non-syntactic composition. 



Compound words consist of three elements, the first term, the 

 connecting vowel, and the last term. For reasons of conven- 

 ience, the last term will be considered first, then the connective, 

 and, finally, under the first term, will be given a detailed exposi- 

 tion of composition in the different classes of words. 



THE LAST TERM 



The last term is always a nominal stem, i. e., noun, adjective, 

 or verbal adjective. The form of the last term is necessarily 

 determined by its character, as follows : 



I. If the last term is a noun, it may (i) stand without 

 change, and the resulting compound is properly a substantive, 

 though Greek often employs such words as adjectives, or (2) 

 it may take adjectival endings, according to its declension, and 

 the resulting compound is an adjective. Again, in Greek, prac- 

 tically all compound adjectives may be used as substantives. 



II. If the last term is an adjective or verbal adjective, it 

 may stand without change in the resulting compound, but usu- 

 ally it becomes an adjective of two terminations (-os, m.,f. , -ov, n., 

 rarely, -775, m., f. , -es, n.). The adjective may take substantive 

 suffixes, in which case the compound will, of course, be a noun. 



The following examples will illustrate the form of the last 

 term and the character of the resulting compound. 



I.I. The last term is a noun, undergoing no change. 1 



TToSo-a-n-opa, rf (TTOUS, iroSos, 6, foot, cnropd, 17, seed) foot-spore 

 aifjuaro-KOKKOs, 6 (at/no., ai/xaros, TO, blood, KOKKOS, 6, berry) blood- 



berry 

 o<io-ora<i>A.>7, y (o<is, o<^tos, o0e<os, 6, snake, ora^vX^, 17, bunch 



of grapes) briony 



1 For accent of compounds, see Buttmann, 292. 

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