14.4: §94. Other Verbal Compounds
The verb agere (“do” or “drive”) has a set of well-disguised compounds. Here the original verb root has been reduced to -ig- , as in navigate ( nav-ig-atus ) and navigation < nav-ig-at-io < navis + agere , “ship-driving.” From lis, litis (“lawsuit”) came lit-ig-are (E litigate , liti gant ) and lit-ig-i-osus (E litigious ). So fumus > fumigate (“drive smoke”), and castus > castigate (“drive pure”; i.e., “rebuke,” “correct”). Even in Roman antiquity, castigate had acquired the force of its English doublets, chasten and chastise .
From ferre (“bring,” “bear”) came English compound derivatives in -fer and – ferous . We’ve already seen conifer (with its adjective coniferous ). Vociferous is “voice-bringing”; pestiferous , “pest-bringing.” The epithet Lucifer (“Light-bearer”) was applied to the morning planet Venus long before the name acquired its Satanic connotations. In French, a “mammal” is a mammif ère (“breast-bearer”). A classicist might misread the modern slogan Prolifer (Pro-lifer) as prol-i-fer (“bearer of offspring”), Latin source of the denominative verb proliferate . If prolific Pro-lifers proliferate, will they become aware of that highly appropriate coincidence?
In §83 we met the compounds omn-i-scient (“all-knowing”) and omn-i-potent (“all-powerful”). Omn-i-vorous , like carn-i -vorous , derives from vorare (“eat,” “devour”)—source of vorax (< E voracious ), §88. The – parous part of oviparous (L ov-i-par-us ), “egg-laying,” is the verb par ĕ re , partus (“bring forth,” “produce”). So, too, viviparous (L viv-i-par-us ), “producing live offspring.”
Compounds with bene – and male – include the antonyms benefactor and malefactor , discussed under facere ; benevolent (“well-wishing”) and malevolent ; benediction (“blessing”) and malediction (“curse”).