The "arco" in "arcosolium"

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zuzannams
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The "arco" in "arcosolium"

Post by zuzannams »

(1) What are the rules of formation of such compound forms as "arcosolium," which is formed by linking "arcus" to "solium"? Is the "arco" in "arcosolium" in Ablativus?

(2) Then, what would the correct form be if the word was in first declination? Say, if I - hypothetically speaking - wanted to link "aqua" and "solium," would it be correct to use Ablativus, so the compound form would be "aquasolium"?

(3) Last but not least: if I am correct, why is Ablativus used in such cases?

spiphany
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Re: The "arco" in "arcosolium"

Post by spiphany »

My understanding is that compounds in many Indo-European languages (not just Latin) tend to use uninflected forms of the modifier (the word being "stuck on"). Inflected forms are possible, but not so common.
The form is based on the word stem, plus any phonetic changes needed to make the resulting compound easy to pronounce, i.e., if the word is a consonant stem and it's being attached to a word that begins with a consonant, you get an extra vowel stuck in to keep the consonants from clashing with each other. -i and -o as connecting vowels are pretty common.

If you have JSTOR access, you might check out the following article:
The Form of Nominal Compounds in Latin
George D. Chase
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
Vol. 11, (1900), pp. 61-72
IPHIGENIE: Kann uns zum Vaterland die Fremde werden?
ARKAS: Und dir ist fremd das Vaterland geworden.
IPHIGENIE: Das ist's, warum mein blutend Herz nicht heilt.
(Goethe, Iphigenie auf Tauris)

jtm
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Re: The "arco" in "arcosolium"

Post by jtm »

Allen and Greenough has a section on the formation of words (starting at section #227). Part of that is a section on the formation of compounds (starting at 264).

They give the following examples to the rule cited above--that the first part of the compound is the stem of the original word with -i or -o often used to glue the first part of the compound to the second, regardless of the declension of the word.

agri-cola (from ager)
armi-ger (from arma)
corni-cen (from cornu)
carni-fex (from caro)

A&G describes all sorts of other kinds of compounds as well.

adrianus
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Re: The "arco" in "arcosolium"

Post by adrianus »

Hi, welcome, zuzannams // Gratus mihi tuus adventus, zuzannams
zuzannams wrote:(2) Then, what would the correct form be if the word was in first declination? Say, if I - hypothetically speaking - wanted to link "aqua" and "solium," would it be correct to use Ablativus, so the compound form would be "aquasolium"?
Ut dicunt jtm et spiphany,—unde aquae verbi primae declinationis haec; "aquaeductus" (= ductus aquae), "aquaelicium" "aquiducus -a -um" "aquifuga" "aquigenus -a -um". Tunc conjunctè non "aquâsolium" dicatur (ut opinor) sed "aquaesolium" vel "aquisolium" vel (contemplativè sejugatis verbis) "aquâ solium" quidem (solium ex aquâ factum).

As jtm and spiphany said,—so you have these from 1st-declension "water": "aquaduct" "rain-making" "dehydrating" "hydrophobe" "born-in-water". So, "aquâsolium"? No, but "aquaesolium" or "aquisolium" for "water sill"(!?—hypothetically), 'though you could also say (theoretically, in separated words) "aquâ solium" (a sill made of water).
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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