[68]
Compounds are however
formed from two complete Latin words, as for instance supefui and subterfui; though in this case
there is some question as to whether the words from
which they are formed are complete.1 They may
also be formed of one complete and one incomplete
[p. 111]
word, as in the case of malevolus, or of one incomplete and one complete, such as noctivagus, or of
two incomplete words as in pedisecus (footman), or
from one Latin and one foreign word as in biclinium
(a dining-couch for two), or in the reverse order
as in epitogium (an upper garment) or Anticato, and
sometimes even from two foreign words as in
epiraedium (a thong attaching the horse to the raeda).
For in this last case the preposition is Greek, while
raeda is Gallic, while the compound is employed
neither by Greek nor Gaul, but has been appropriated by Rome from the two foreign tongues.
1 i.e. if both elements are complete in themselves is the word a true compound?
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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