Zool.— Vol. I.] MILLER— GREEK AMD LATIN DERIVATIVES. 1 25 



M 



■a 



ct! 



u 



> + 



a 

 2.+ 



OJ 



U 



in- 



lUg- 



1- 



s, unyoked; 



se- 



cur- 



u- 



s, careless. 



27 



28 5- Verbs are rarely used as first member of a compound ; 

 when they are so employed, their stem vowel appears as 

 -i-, either from a natural weakening or from analogy with 

 stems that do suffer such weakening: e. g. 



horri-ficus (horre-re, dread, -f-fac-ere, make), 



horror-stirring ; 

 posci-nummus (posc-ere, ask, -f- num-mus, 



coin), begging; 

 terri-ficus (terre-re , frighten, f ac-ere, make), 



terror-causing ; 

 perterri-crepus (perterre- re, terrify, crep- 



ere, rattle), terribly-rattling. 



29 6. Adverbs may be prefixed to almost any adjective 

 without affecting the form: semper-vivus, ever-living; 

 bene-volens, well-wishing ; male-dicens, evil-speak- 

 ing; etc. 



Greek Compounds. 



The construction of compound words is an art; the con- 

 summate mastery of that art is attainable or attained only in 

 the language of Greece. The Germans pile words together 

 in a convenient way and call them compounds, but they are 

 inartistic and artificial. Sanskrit is incomparably richer in 

 compositions than either Greek or German, or both together, 



septu- was influenced by septu-aginta, and septi- is the natural weak- 

 ening of septu-. 



8. octo- is the rule; but when octo became octS, it naturally followed 

 the course of the o- declension and became first octu- and then octi-. 



9. novem- and noven- are both in use and both regular; noven is 

 the older form of the word: e. g. noven-dialis, of nine days; Novem- 

 ber, the ninth month. 



