Compound words in Plautus

[cinefactus]

Latin, unlike Greek, doesn't often combine two words into one like that. In what sense do you wish to connect carrus and pectus?

I notice that Plautus seems to do this fairly commonly. Is it a practice that went out of fashion, or is he just trying to be ridiculous?

 

[Callaina]

I notice that Plautus seems to do this fairly commonly. Is it a practice that went out of fashion, or is he just trying to be ridiculous?

It's also possible he's trying to imitate Greek (since he based many of his plays on Greek models). I don't know, though.

 

[Pacifica]

Compound words do exist in Latin, but they're just not as common as in Greek.

Some of Plautus's coinages were obviously meant as humorous (e.g. the brilliant dentilegus, lumbifragium, dentifrangibulus...).

 

[cinefactus]

Some of Plautus's coinages were obviously meant as humorous (e.g. the brilliant dentilegus, lumbifragium, dentifrangibulus...).

Just encountered another one, plagigera


Do you think they are unique to comedy, or was he copying derogatory terms used on the street? furcifer seems to be one which became more widely used.

 

[cinefactus]

I guess this deserves its own thread, so I have moved it.

 

[cinefactus]

lectisterniator

Perhaps it is like the way we use derogatory expressions like SOB or MF in English.

 

[Pacifica]

Do you think they are unique to comedy, or was he copying derogatory terms used on the street? furcifer seems to be one which became more widely used.

I can't know for sure, of course, but I think he invented many of them. He largely (maybe always, but absolute claims are dangerous when you aren't 100% sure of what you're saying) followed the regular Latin word-formation rules, so his coinages aren't "irregular" in that sense, but the ideas that they convey would more often than not have been conveyed with two or more separate words in "normal" speech/non-humorous prose.

 

[Pacifica]

Here are a few more favorites of mine. I know I've posted them in other places before, but they will belong well in this thread too.

Stultiloquium, stultiloquentia, stultiloquus, stultividus, urbicapus.

 

[cinefactus]

vaniloquentia
inanilogistae

 

[cinefactus]

I found:
Compound Word Coinages in the Plays of Plautus
Stein, J. Peter
Latomus, 1 July 1971, Vol.30(3), pp.598-606

He notes that most compounds have negative meanings.
His thoughts are that most of the words have been invented for comic effect.

 

[Callaina]

I wonder if Shakespeare was inspired by Plautus in his own word/phrase coinages.