Dictionary

paenultima law en · NOUN

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (singular, singular-only) 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.
   • 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. 1892, The Journal of Philology, XX, page 138:

Forms