[PW] What type of word is "inasmuch"?

[John P. Dyson]

Albeit Mr. Fowler disapproves of these composite adverbs and 
prepositions, insofar as I am aware Western European languages have 
agglutinated prepositions, adjectives and nouns with additional 
prepositions to great expressive advantage over the years. This is 
especially true in the Romance languages. Original Latin prepositions 
were adapted to new meanings and that gave rise to the need for other 
creations to represent both static positional relationships and those 
of motion. Spanish, for example, combined Latin ad + de + in + ante to 
form adelante; de + ex + de to get desde; de + ex + post to arrive at 
después; de + trans to form detrás. The simple Latin retro got so much 
help in Spanish that it is nearly unrecognizable: it first became redor 
then alrededor de. Sometimes the same Latin preposition shows up twice 
in the same word: cum + me + cum, conmigo.

Also combined were prepositions and adjectives (de + bassus and laxius 
+ de) debajo and lejos de; prepositions and nouns (a + ripa) arriba, 
(in + cima + de) encima de.

May we suppose that Mr. Fowler never rode the underground under ground?

John Dyson
Spanish and Portuguese
Indiana University