The Grammar of English Grammars, page 430 by Gould Brown
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ng, dialist; equal, equalize, equality; vitriol, vitriolic, vitriolate_.
EXCEPTIONS.--1. The final l of words ending in el, must be doubled before an other vowel, lest the power of the e be mistaken, and a syllable be lost: as, _travel, traveller; duel, duellist; revel, revelling; gravel, gravelly; marvel, marvellous_. Yet the word parallel, having three Ells already, conforms to the rule in forming its derivatives; as, _paralleling, paralleled_, and unparalleled. 2. Contrary to the preceding rule, the preterits, participles, and derivative nouns, of the few verbs ending in _al, il_, or ol, unaccented,--namely, _equal, rival, vial, marshal, victual, cavil, pencil, carol, gambol_, and pistol,--are usually allowed to double the l, though some dissent from the practice: as, _equalled, equalling; rivalled, rivalling; cavilled, cavilling, caviller; carolled, carolling, caroller_. 3. When ly follows l, we have two Ells of course, but in fact no doubling: as, _real, really; oral, orally; cruel, cruelly; civil, civilly; cool, coolly; wool, woolly_. 4. Compounds, though they often remove the principal accent from the point of duplication, always retain the double letter: as, _wit'snapper, kid'napper,[114] grass'hopper, duck'-legged, spur'galled, hot'spurred, broad'-brimmed, hare'-lipped, half-witted_. So, compromitted and _manumitted_; but benefited is different.
RULE V.--FINAL CK.
Monosyllables and English verbs end not with c, but take ck for double _c_; as, _rack, wreck, rock, attack_: but, in general, words derived from the learned languages need not the k, and common use discards it; as, _Italic, maniac, music, public_.
EXCEPTIONS.--The words arc, part of a circle; orc, the name of a fish; lac, a gum or resin; and sac, or soc, a privilege, in old English law, are ended with c only. Zinc is, perh