the insertion of a meaningless _o_ before the final _-us_.[1] These
of course follow the rules given above. In words of more than two
syllables the antepenultimate and stressed vowel is shortened, as
'[)e]mulous' from _æmulus_ and in 'fr[)i]volous' from _fr[=i]volus_,
except where by the 'alias' rule it is long, as in 'egr[=e]gious' from
_egr[)e]gius_. Words coined on this analogy also follow the rules.
Thus 'glabrous' and 'fibrous' have the vowels long, as in the
traditional pronunciation of _glabrum_ and _fibrum_, where the vowels
in classical Latin were short. The stressed _u_ being always long we
have 'lug[=u]brious' and 'sal[=u]brious', the length being independent
of the 'alias' rule. Some words ending in _-ous_ are not of this
class. Thus 'odorous' and 'clamorous' appear in Italian as _odoroso_
and _clamoroso_. Milton has

Sonórous mettal blowing Martial sounds.

The Italian is _sonoro_, and our word was simply the Latin _sonorus_
borrowed bodily at a somewhat late period. Hence the stress remains
on the penultima. Skeat thought that the word would at last become
'sónorous'. It maybe hoped that Milton's line will save it from the
effect of a false analogy.

[Footnote 1: I regard this statement as inaccurate. The _-ous_ in
these words does not come from the nominative ending _-us_, but is the
ordinary _-ous_ from L. _-osus_ (through Fr.). It was added to many
Latin adjective stems, because the need of a distinctly adjectival
ending was felt. Similarly in early French _-eux_ was appended to
adjectives when they were felt to require a termination, as in
_pieux_ from _pi-us_. Compare the English _capacious_, _veracious_,
_hilarious_, where _-ous_ is added to other stems than those in _o_.