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Tabulae Formationis Nominum Agentium
mood: 
Eruditissimus
Eruditissimus"Tabulae Formationis Nominum Agentium"
"Tables of the Formation of Agent Nouns"
I made these:
Regular Formation
* indicates words that were created for the sake of demonstration.
"PPP" in the chart means "perfect passive participle."
"Ex." means "example."
Ex. |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes:
- The -t- in -tor may become -s- by phonetic change, but the -r- in -trīx and -trum keeps the -t- from becoming -s-.
- The -s- ending above comes from the -ss- ending.
- In the -ss- ending, the final -s- represents the -s- of the -sor suffix, and the first -s- represents the real or imagined (i.e. developed from analogy or phonetic change) final letter of the verb theme.
- In the -st- ending, the -s- represents the real or imagined (i.e. developed from analogy or phonetic change) final letter of the verb theme, and the -t- represents the -t- in the -trīx and -trum suffixes.
- Impulstrīx (from root PUL) was created on the analogy of various words such as tonstrīx and possestrīx, where -strīx was thought of as the common ending. The -strum ending follows the same principle (cf. -strum in monstrum from monēre). Expultrīx, which is from the same root, was created on the analogy of the frequentative verb form pultāre.
- The -x- ending above is thought to represent -cs-, where -c- is the real or imagined (i.e. developed from analogy or phonetic change) final letter of the verb theme, and the final -s- represents the -s- of the -sor suffix.
- In the -ct- ending, the -c- represents the real or imagined (i.e. developed from analogy or phonetic change) final letter of the verb theme, and the -t- represents the -t- in the -trīx and -trum suffixes.
Irregular Formation
Although there is no clear attestation (and please keep this in mind), the suffixes -tor, -trīx, and -trum could be used to form agent nouns in the same way that the frequentative verb-forming suffix -tāre is used to form frequentative verbs such as agitāre: the suffix is added to the stem, which ends in a stem vowel, a thematic vowel, or a connecting vowel, and that vowel appears as -i-.
Ex. |
Vowel |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Note:
- The idea behind this formation is that a real or fictitious perfect passive participle is being implied by these agent nouns and frequentative verbs such as agitāre. The verb agitāre implies a perfect passive participle base *agit- instead of the normal act-, and from this agit- base we get *agitor, *agitrīx, *agitrum.
- Notice that when a vowel appears immediately after es-, the stem of esse, the stem loses its first e: sum, sumus, sunt.
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