[178]. In prose or old dramatic verse a syllable with a short vowel before a mute or f followed by l or r is not long: as tenebrae. In other verse, however, such syllables are sometimes regarded as long. In compounds such syllables are long in any verse: as obruit.
[LOSS OF SYLLABLES.]
[179]. The first of two successive syllables which begin with the same sound is sometimes lost. This is called Haplology.
Thus, sēmodius for sēmimodius, half a bushel; calamitōsus for *calamitātōsus, from the stem calamitāt- ([262]) and suffix -oso- ([336]); voluntārius, for voluntātārius ([262], [309]); cōnsuētūdō, for cōnsuētitūdō ([264]). See also [255]; [379].
[B. FORMATION.]
[180]. Formation is the process by which stems are formed from roots or from other stems.
[181]. A word containing a single stem is called a Simple word: as, magnus, great, stem magno-; animus, soul, stem animo-. A word containing two or more stems is called a Compound word: as, magnanimus, great-souled, stem magnanimo-.
[182]. Most inflected words consist of two parts: a stem, which is usually a modified root ([195]), and an inflection ending: thus, in ductōrī, for a leader, the root is duc-, lead, the stem is ductōr-, leader, and -ī is the inflection ending, meaning for.
[183]. A Root is a monosyllable which gives the fundamental meaning to a word or group of words.