paenultima law

== English == === Alternative forms === (forms preserving the ae digraph of paene) paenultima law, Paenultima law, Paenultima Law (forms reducing the ae digraph of paene to e) penultima law, Penultima law, Penultima Law === Etymology === First attested in 1892; Latin paenultima (“penult”) + English law. === Noun === paenultima law (singulare tantum) (linguistics and orthoëpy, sometimes “the paenultima law of accentuation”) 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.