paenultima law

English

Alternative forms

• (forms preserving the ae digraph of paene) paenultima law, Paenultima law, Paenultima Law
• (forms reducing the ae digraph of paene to e) penultima law, Penultima law, Penultima Law

Etymology

First attested in 1892; Latin paenultima (“penult”) + English law.

Noun

paenultima law (singulare tantum)

1. (linguistics and orthoëpy, sometimes “the paenultima law of accentuation”) The rule of Classical Latin pronunciation which states that a word receives antepenultimate stress if its penult is a short or metrically light syllable, but receives penultimate stress if its penult is a long or metrically heavy syllable.
   • 1892, The Journal of Philology, XX, page 138:

     He calls attention to the large number of words found over and over again with a metrical accent which does not follow the ‘paenultima law’, but falls on the last syllable…or even on the fourth syllable from the end.