There seems, however, to
be a general agreement nowadays to keep the Greek omega. As for
'protagonist' the word is so technical and is often so ludicrously
misunderstood that writers on the Greek drama would do well to retain
the Greek termination and say 'protagonistes'; for 'protagonist' is
very commonly mistaken and used for the opposite of 'antagonist'.
Next come words beginning with _hypo_ or _hyph_. In a disyllable the
vowel is long by the 'apex' rule, as in 'hyphen'. In longer words
it should be short. So once it was, and we still say 'hypocaust',
'hypocrit', 'hypochondria' (whence 'hypped'), 'hypothesis', and
others, but a large group of technical and scientific words seems
determined to have a long _y_. It looks as though there were a belief
that _y_ is naturally long, though the French influence which gives us
't[=y]rant' does not extend to 'tyranny'. I do not know what Mr. Hardy
calls his poem, but I hope he follows the old use and calls it 'The
D[)y]nasts'. It might be thought that 'd[)y]nasty' was safe, but it
is not. Some modern words like 'dynamite' have been misused from their
birth.
Another class begins with _hydro-_ from the Greek word for water. None
of them seem to be very old, but probably 'hydraulic' began life with
a short _y_. Surely Mrs. Malaprop, when she meant 'hysterics' and said
'hydrostatics', must have used the short _y_.
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