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Page 11
With mask and �ntique Pageantry,
and it obscures the etymological identity of 'antique' and 'antic',
but the old pronunciation is irredeemable. At least the new avoids the
homophonic inconvenience.
Greek words of this class used as adjectives mostly follow the
same rule, as 'sporadic', 'dynamic', 'pneumatic', 'esoteric',
'philanthropic', 'emetic', 'panegyric'. As nouns the earlier
introductions threw the stress back, as 'heretic', 'arithmetic',
but later words follow the adjectives, as 'emetic', 'enclitic',
'panegyric'. As for 'politic', which is stressed as we stress both by
Shakespeare and by Milton, it must be under French influence, though
Skeat seems to think that it came straight from Latin.
STEMS IN -OS. These words agree in being disyllabic, but otherwise
they are a tiresome and quarrelsome people. For their diversity in
spelling some can make a defence, since 'horror', 'pallor', 'stupor'
came straight from Latin, but 'tenor', coming through French, should
have joined hands with 'colour', 'honour', 'odour'. The short vowel is
inevitable in 'horror' and 'pallor', the long in 'ardour', 'stupor',
'tumour'. The rest are at war, 'clamour', 'colour', 'honour',
'dolour', 'rigour', 'squalor', 'tenor', 'vigour' in the short
legion, 'favour', 'labour', 'odour', 'vapour' in the long. Their
camp-followers ending in -ous are under their discipline, so that,
while 'cl[)a]morous', 'r[)i]gorous', 'v[)i]gorous' agree with
the general rule, '[=o]dorous' makes an exception to it. All
the derivatives of _favor_ are exceptions to the general rule,
for 'favourite' and 'favorable' keep its long _a_. Of course
'l[)a]b[=o]rious' is quite in order, and so is 'v[)a]pid'.
STEMS IN -TOR AND -SOR. These words, when they came through French,
threw the stress back and shortened the penultimate, _[=o]r[=a]torem_
becoming _orateur_, and then '[)o]r[)a]tor', with the stress on the
antepenultimate. Others of the same type are 'auditor', 'competitor',
'senator', and Shelley has
The sister-pest, congr�gator of slaves,
while 'amateur' is borrowed whole from French and stresses its ultima.
Trisyllables of course shorten the first vowel, as 'cr[)e]ditor',
'j[)a]nitor'. Polysyllables follow the stress of the verbs; thus
'�gitate' gives '�gitator' and 'comp�se' gives 'comp�sitor'. To the
first class belongs 'circulator', 'educator', 'imitator', 'moderator',
'negotiator', 'prevaricator', with which 'gladiator' associates
itself; to the second belongs 'competitor'. Words which came straight
from Latin keep the stress of the Latin nominative, as 'creator',
'spectator', 'testator', 'coadjutor', 'assessor', to which in Walton's
honour must be added 'Piscator' and 'Venator'. On 'curator' he who
decides does so at his peril. On one occasion Eldon from the Bench
corrected Erskine for saying 'c�r[)a]tor'. 'Cur[=a]tor, Mr. Erskine,
cur[=a]tor.' 'I am glad', was the reply, 'to be set right by so
eminent a sen[=a]tor and so eloquent an or[=a]tor as your Lordship.'
Neither eminent lawyer knew much about it, but each was so far right
that he stuck to the custom of his country. On other grounds Erskine
might be thought to have committed himself to 't�st[)a]tor', if not
quite to the 'testy tricks' of Sally in Mrs. Gaskell's 'Ruth'.
STEMS IN -ERO AND -URO. Adjectives of this type keep the Latin stress,
which thus falls on the ultima, and shorten or obscure the penultimate
vowel, as 'mature', 'obscure', 'severe', 'sincere', but of course
'[=a]ustere'. Of like form though of other origin is 'secure'. Nouns
take an early stress, as '�perture', 's�pulture', 'l�terature',
't�mperature', unless two mutes obstruct, as in 'conj�cture'. Of the
disyllables 'nature' keeps a long penultima, while 'figure' has it
short, not because of the Latin quantity, but because of the French.
The lonely word 'mediocre' lengthens its first vowel by the 'alias'
rule and also stresses it. Whether the penultima has more than a
secondary stress is a matter of dispute.
STEMS IN -ARI. These words have the stress on the antepenultima,
which they shorten, as in 'secular' or keep short as in 'jocular',
'familiar', but of course 'pec[=u]liar'.
_ON CERTAIN GREEK WORDS._
It will have been seen that Greek words are usually treated as Latin.
Thus 'crisis' lengthens the penultima under the 'apex' rule, while
'critical' has it short under the general rule of polysyllables.
Other examples of lengthening are 'bathos', 'pathos', while the long
quantity is of course kept in 'colon' and 'crasis'. For the 'alias'
rule we may quote '[=a]theist', 'cryptog[=a]mia', 'h[=o]meopathy',
'heterog[=e]neous', 'pandem[=o]nium', while the normal shortenings
are found in 'an[)o]nymous', 'eph[)e]meral', 'pand[)e]monium',
'[)e]r[)e]mite'. Ignorance of English usage has made some editors
flounder on a line of Pope's:
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