“Latin Compounds”

Special Terminations

     An adjectival Stem Compound may be created by using, as its second part, a combining form made by modifying the ending of a substantival stem.  The resulting Stem Compound may have adjectival terminations that differ from the nominative termination of the original substantive stem.  So, when the Stem Compound flāvicomus was created, the stem comā- became a combining form ending in the adjectival termination -us.

     When a substantival stem is made into a combining form to be used as the second part of an adjectival Stem Compound, it is modified in a way that reflects the formation of a combining form to be used as the first part except the Connecting Vowel is replaced with a set of adjectival terminations.  For the sake of convenience, the three sets of adjectival terminations will be referred to here as Type A, Type B, and Type C.

     This chart shows the details of the three types of terminations:

     This chart shows what replaces what:

     For example, in the creation of the Stem Compound flāvicomus, when the stem comā- became a combining form to be used as the second part, it did so as if it were a first-part combining form comi- (with the Connecting Vowel i) except the Connecting Vowel i was replaced with the Type A adjectival terminations.

From Nouns of the First, Second, and Fourth Declensions

     Combining forms made from substantive stems of the first, second, and fourth declensions used as second parts of Stem Compounds form adjectives ending in the Type A terminations or the Type C terminations.

     The first- and second-declension stems more often than not form Stem Compounds ending in the Type C terminations when their penults are long, while first- and second-declension stems with short penults form Stem Compounds ending in either the Type A or Type C terminations.

     Stems in -iā and -io do not use the Type C terminations because of the avoidance of the combination ii.

From Nouns of the Third and Fifth Declensions

     Combining forms made from substantive stems of the third and fifth declensions used as second parts of Stem Compounds form adjectives ending in the Type A terminations.  More rarely, combining forms made from substantive stems of the third declension used as second parts of Stem Compounds form adjectives ending in the Type C terminations.

From Nouns of Any Declension

     Combining forms made from substantive stems of any declension used as second parts of Stem Compounds form adjectives ending in the Type B terminations.

From Combining Forms Ending in -II

     Combining forms ending in -ii, where the second Connecting Vowel i regularly disappears, may have the single remaining Connecting Vowel i replaced with the Type B terminations as in crassivēnius -a -um, or have the second Connecting Vowel i in -ii replaced with the Type A terminations as in flāvicomus -a -um.  Either way yields the same result.

1. Two Groups of Compound Words in Latin
   1. Stem Compounds
      1. Three Types of Stem Compounds
      2. Two Main Parts of a Stem Compound
      3. Combining the Parts of a Stem Compound
         1. First Part of a Stem Compound
            1. Latin Substantives
            2. Latin Adjectives
            3. Latin Verbs
            4. Special Combining Forms
         2. Second Part
            1. Nominative Form or Principal Part
            2. Inseparable Second Parts
               1. In Compounded Substantives
               2. In Compounded Adjectives
               3. In Compounded Verbs
            3. Special Terminations ← You Are Here
   2. Syntactic Compounds
      1. Cases Forms
      2. Particles
      3. Inseparable Parts
2. Vocabulary
3. Bibliography

Latin Compounds | Pāginae Latīnitātis | DIĒS GAUDIĪ

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