Classical compounds and
neoclassical compounds are
compound words composed from
combining forms (which act as
affixes or
stems) derived from
classical Latin or
ancient Greek roots.
New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the
technical and
scientific lexicon of
English and other languages, including
international scientific vocabulary. For example, combines with to form
biography ("life" + "writing/recording"). A vowel usually facilitates the combination: in
biography, the
interfix , in
miniskirt, the interfix . This vowel is usually regarded as attached to the initial base (
bio-,
mini-) rather than the final base (
-graphy,
-skirt), but in forms where it is conventionally
stressed, it is sometimes shown as attached to the final base (
-ography,
-ology). If, however, the final base begins with a vowel (for example,
-archy as in
monarchy), the mediating vowel has traditionally been avoided (not *
monoarchy), but in recent coinages it is often kept, sometimes accompanied by a hyphen (
auto-analysis,
bioenergy,
hydroelectricity, not *
autanalysis, *
bienergy, *
hydrelectricity).