All
the derivatives of _favor_ are exceptions to the general rule,
for 'favourite' and 'favorable' keep its long _a_. Of course
'l[)a]b[=o]rious' is quite in order, and so is 'v[)a]pid'.
STEMS IN -TOR AND -SOR. These words, when they came through French,
threw the stress back and shortened the penultimate, _[=o]r[=a]torem_
becoming _orateur_, and then '[)o]r[)a]tor', with the stress on the
antepenultimate. Others of the same type are 'auditor', 'competitor',
'senator', and Shelley has
The sister-pest, congr['e]gator of slaves,
while 'amateur' is borrowed whole from French and stresses its ultima.
Trisyllables of course shorten the first vowel, as 'cr[)e]ditor',
'j[)a]nitor'. Polysyllables follow the stress of the verbs;
thus '['a]gitate' gives '['a]gitator' and 'comp['o]se' gives
'comp['o]sitor'. To the first class belongs 'circulator', 'educator',
'imitator', 'moderator', 'negotiator', 'prevaricator', with which
'gladiator' associates itself; to the second belongs 'competitor'.
Words which came straight from Latin keep the stress of the Latin
nominative, as 'creator', 'spectator', 'testator', 'coadjutor',
'assessor', to which in Walton's honour must be added 'Piscator'
and 'Venator'. On 'curator' he who decides does so at his peril.
On one occasion Eldon from the Bench corrected Erskine for saying
'c['u]r[)a]tor'. 'Cur[=a]tor, Mr. Erskine, cur[=a]tor.
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