18S4.] Merriam o» the 'Cotics Check List and Lexicon.^ '2n 



Harpers' 'Latin Dictionary' (1S79) as fair authority for the form 

 of all words of the classic period, and in some cases embracing 

 authors as late as 600 and 700 a. d., we find the following com- 

 pounds in which the o is used : — Unomajnmia^ merobibiis 

 and socioj'raiidus in Plautus, viocnrus in Varro, priniopilus (for 

 the usual prlmipihis)^ sacrosaiictus in Cicero, Ahenobarbus 

 in Livy, Forojtiliensis in Tacitus, Forocoi-nelicmis and frii}w- 

 geiiitus ( ?) in Pliny, ruinpotimts and 7-iimpotnietii7n in Colu- 

 mella. These belong to good writers ; the remainder occur from 

 150 A. D. to 650. They are, albogalerus^ haniotrahoiics^ pri- 

 mogenltalls^ albogilviis^ tnnicopalliiim^ frimocrcatus, I imoci ac- 

 tus^ jMiirocincta ( ?) , mitlomedicina^ mTiIomediais^ Dmloc.'saritis, 

 obliqiioloquns^ tertiocernis^ qiiartoceritis^ \ergili; cento, homo- 

 cidalls., oleomeJla., cei'oJ^erariiLS., martlobarbithis. The most 

 thorough examination would not increase this list materially, 

 among genuine Latin words, and the smallness of the number as 

 compared with the thousands of words which emplo}' / instead of 

 <?, shows how foreign to the real genius of the language the o is. 

 \\\ hybrid compounds there is a tendency to the use of c, whether 

 the first or second component is Greek, and of course in genuine 

 Greek words o is the prevailing letter, so that, if not a survival, it 

 may be through the influence of Greek literature that the o crept 

 into this very small corner of the Latin field. At all events, an 

 examination of the words given above shov.'s that the idea of an 

 ablative is quite inadmissible in the large majority of them, and 

 consequently that the Romans had no consciousness of it in the 

 others ; besides, if they had, they would have written aiirojltms., 

 "■flowing with gold," instead of aiirijiiiiis. and countless others of 

 similar import and form. Furthermore, if the o represents the ter- 

 mination of the ablative case, it shoidd be long; on the contrarv, 

 it is short, according to Kiihner (and Dr. Coues virtuallv abandons 

 his position by marking his short) , in the onlv places where its 

 quantity can be determined ; and consequentlv, the best German 

 authorities regard the letter as tJie short final steni-vozvel of the sec- 

 oud declension., to which the second component is directly added, 

 as so frequenth' in Greek. All these considerations render such a 

 rule as that of our author quite untenable, and if anv changes at 

 all are to be made in words already compounded, it woultl be far 

 better to conform to the real genius of the Latin language and write 

 /throughout. Dr. Coues has not followed his own rule to its limit, 



