A 2 Merriam ofi the ^ Cones Check List ajid Lexicoft.' [January 



retainint? the v («)•" "Thi-asybulus, Thi-asymachus" have noth- 

 ing to do with the question, which turns upon the retention of the 

 y before the vowel of the second component. It is a fact that v is 

 usually an exception to the rule propounded above for elision, and 

 for this reason it is likely that the first component is not 9pao-u'sbut 

 0pa-o:, as we find in Thrasokitdoimos^ Thrasippos^ Opao-avxTJv. 

 Hence, the correction from Thrasaetns is open to objection. 



It is to be remembered that if the second component begins with 

 a vowel, that vowel remains, while a preceding one vanishes. 

 Hence the division ";;z?«'a-rc//?^y (377, cf. 819) , for mui[a]-archus 

 is wrong from that point of view. The inventor of Muiadestes 

 seems to have been ignorant or iiiieglectful of this principle, if the 

 composition is jjima eSio-^c, as is probable. The form should have 

 been Miiiedestes. 



If the stem of the first element ends in a consonant, a connecting 

 vowel is regularly needed, unless the second has an initial vowel. 

 In No. 384 we find Empidonax derived from the stem \^t:\.%- 

 (gnat) and "tova| or ava|, king." If it could be made from wvag, 

 Empidonax would be correct. But lova^ is a contracted vocative 

 of (5 a7c-.|. " O king," which would be the strangest possible form 

 to compound with. If from civag, o would naturally disappear, 

 and Empidanax should be written (cf. Hydr-anassa, Dichrom- 

 anassa), unless modeled upon archaic forms. If we are left by 

 the inveirtor to guess, a more reasonable derivation would be from 

 the stem va^- of va<r<r«, "to squeeze," and we arrive at the meaning 

 "gnat-squeezer," instead of "gnat-O-king." 



The so-called connecting vowel i in Latin is regularly short, 

 and it is pretty well agreed among scholars that vowels naturally 

 short were pronounced short in prose, even before two consonants, 

 except before ns^ nf^ where Cicero explicitly states that they 

 were pronounced long. Certainly the short vowel retains its 

 quantity before a mute followed by the liquids / or r. Though 

 these principles are laid down in part, p. 16, and recognized with 

 some hesitation under No. 136, and again alluded to in 150, the 

 writer is, notwithstanding, induced to mark the penult of rubri- 

 frons, long, and accordingly to place the accent upon it, being 

 led astray by the false analogy of rtibr'ico. This, howe\er, is 

 derived from rubj-tca^ which has the / long under the general rule 

 that nouns ending in -ca lengthen the penult. Hence the quan- 

 tity of the / in rub^-ico has nothing to do with that of rubi-ifrons^ 

 which is short, as Dr. Coues marks in Imiifrons^ etc. 



