A suffix is an element of a language that is added to the end of a word. E.g. -ly is a suffix often found at the end of adverbs: really, quickly, happily, strangely, etc., -d/-ed is a suffix often found at the end of a verb to denote the simple past: used, bruised, grazed, heated, etc.
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Which is the proper spelling: “Adapter” or “adaptor”?
In my current project we are writing a program to convert a newer protocol to an older one.
These conversion programs are being referred to as adapters, but the team cannot agree which spelling to ...
2
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2answers
136 views
Eleusian vs. Eleusinian (and, to a lesser extent, Elysian)
Both Eleusian and Eleusinian are used in relation to mysteries. I've only seen Elysian used in relation to Elysian Fields.
Given that the suffix -ian denotes "of or belonging to," I'm wondering if ...
23
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3answers
834 views
What purpose does an '-o' serve?
I have been singing a lot of children’s songs lately, and this afternoon in the car I noticed three songs that add an ‑o to the end of words:
“He had many a mile to go that night before he ...
33
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2answers
1k views
Origin of “-ing”
What is the origin of the suffix -ing used to form gerunds and present participles?
Why is the suffix the same in both cases?
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1answer
87 views
What are the differences between -ist, -ite, and -ian
The suffixes -ist, -ite, and -ian all mean a follower of a person or idea. For example, a follower of Christianity is a Christian, a follower of Buddhism is a Buddhist, and a follower of Shia Islam is ...
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3answers
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What does the suffix “‑fu” mean?
Can anyone tell me what the suffix “‑fu” stands for in the following sentence?
If you want to take advantage of some other Spring-fu, like some of its aspect-oriented features, then you’ll need to ...
2
votes
3answers
227 views
Has the suffix “-trix” acquired a pejorative meaning in recent years?
A couple days ago I needed the correct word for a female aviator, which I figured was aviatress. A dictionary.com search provided aviatress, aviatrice and aviatrix as acceptable choices. ...
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3answers
512 views
-ness suffix etymology
What is the etymology of the suffix '-ness'? I have come across it in OE texts but always assumed it was a later borrowing.
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1answer
97 views
“Exercise” but not “exercize”
Many words are spelled with -ise in British English and -ize in American English:
realise/realize
sanitise/sanitize
scrutinise/scrutinize
But exercise can only be spelled with -ise, never with ...
6
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1answer
1k views
How did “-ish” suffix come to denote the approximate meaning of the word it is attached to?
I know it's currently more of a slang to attach and use it as normalish (see what I did here?) suffix, but still — was there any evolution for this? Also — maybe it had some special meaning?
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votes
1answer
59 views
“Boneular” vs. “bonular”
My knowledge in morphology and orthography is lacking. I would like to know how to spell the neologism boneular, from bone (or Backbone, a programming library used for creating Web applications) and ...
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1answer
226 views
Does the suffix -ion in “invention” mean the same in “station”?
Is the suffix -ion in the word invention the same as in the words direction, nation, fiction, station?
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1answer
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Suffixes for verbification: -ify, -icise, -ificate
The suffixes
-ise/-ize
-ify
-ificate
are all used for verbifying nouns and adjectives. What are the differences in meaning/connotation/usage between them?
(This is generalising from the ...
0
votes
1answer
97 views
Is it “falsy” or “falsey”?
I have seen both versions of the word, falsy and falsey.
It can mean "something that is equivalent to false" in computer science, such as "The only two falsy values in the Ruby Language are false and ...
4
votes
2answers
177 views
Is “Songify” a well-received word as an English neology?
I came across the word “songify” for the first time in the article of October 23 NY Times titled ‘Yes We Chant’ with the sub-head, “The Gregory Brothers songify the debate, with Gregorian chanting.”
...
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3answers
637 views
Is ‘Yes-ish’ a perfect alternative to Yes, or is it 'Yes ‘on condition’? Is it received English?
I found a word ‘Yes-ish’ in the answer (from PLL) to my question about the meaning of ‘Stuck to the script’ I posted today. As it is quite new to my ear, I consulted with Wikipedia before logging out ...
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1answer
343 views
Is “Hissable” a well-received English word?
I posted a question about the receptivity of the word, “non-view” in “views and non-view” a few days ago. One answerer responded me that though “non-view” is not registered in any (or most) of ...
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6answers
7k views
Difference between “commentor” and “commentator”
What is the difference between commentor and commentator? Is commentor or commenter a legitimate English word?
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3answers
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2answers
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Is “-th” still a productive suffix in English?
The main question here is whether using -(e)th to create ordinals out of cardinals1 is still considered a productive suffix in English. Is it?
If so, then does it matter whether we are in a formal ...
3
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1answer
348 views
Are the adjectives “utopic” and “dystopic” correct English words?
My dictionary only mentions the form ending in "ian" for both adjectives (utopian/dystopian) yet I do come across the "ic" ending in some decent writings. Would that be considered incorrect usage?
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vote
0answers
55 views
(n+1)st or (n+1)th? [duplicate]
When referring to object number n+1, is it the (n+1)st or (n+1)th object?
Of course, object number 1 would be referred to as the 1st, but since I would say n plus one, adding an -st would make this ...
6
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2answers
299 views
Why is “k” added to “panic” when suffixes added (as in “panicky”)?
When adding any suffix to the word "panic," a "k" is added after the "c". Examples: panicked, panicking, panicky.
Why is this the case? Are there any other English words that do the same? I'm also ...
3
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1answer
775 views
When to use -Ites / Ians / Ish / An / Ni / Ese / Elsh / Er [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Are there any rules governing what we call people from different countries?
I have some confusion regarding usage of suffixes such as -ites / -ians / -ish.
For example: ...
5
votes
1answer
112 views
Why does the “e” in judge vanish in the word “judgment”?
The in the word "judgment", the "e" from "judge" is absent. Three questions on this:
Why is this?
Is there a name for such a contraction?
How and why does the "g" still retain its "soft" ...
11
votes
4answers
4k views
“-gram” vs. “-graph”
What’s the difference between the suffixes -gram and -graph? Is there any difference? Even if they are completely synonymous, what’s the difference in etymology?
For example, pictograph vs. ...
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3answers
160 views
Coining new words from existing ones: Duplicate last letter?
I am trying to invent a word by taking an existing word and turning it into a noun a person can be called who is interacting with an object.
The trouble I ran into was the initial word's ending.
...
29
votes
9answers
6k views
“Trainer” is to “trainee” as “mentor” is to what?
What do you call someone who is being mentored? Is it mentoree or mentee? Does the term student or pupil imply a context outside the business environment?
6
votes
2answers
919 views
Problem with -ance/-ence
OK, so I'm ashamed to admit that as a native speaker I think I've missed something somewhere. I was typing up some documentation and spellchecker kept bugging me. So I looked up some words and found ...
3
votes
2answers
139 views
Where does the suffix “-tine” come from?
Where does the suffix -tine come from? For e.g., Ovaltine, Creatine, etc. all have a -tine suffix. What is the meaning connoted to the noun attached?
2
votes
3answers
184 views
What is the opposite of the ending “-cide” (as in “suicide”, “pesticide”)?
I'm looking for the antonym of -cide (as in suicide, pesticide, etc.). Essentially the ending to words that would mean "to create or embrace".
3
votes
2answers
135 views
What is the proper demonym for someone from Shreveport?
A tweet popped up in my feed recently that posed a really good question. On first blush I thought "Oh, I can answer this!" then upon further reflection I realized I can't.
In the case of "New ...
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3answers
177 views
“You are likely to [verb]” vs. “you are like to [verb]”
In a recent answer to another question, a fellow poster just used the following turn of phrase:
The nearest you’re like to get is [word][.]
I only ever saw and used "you’re likely to..." myself, ...
8
votes
4answers
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“Ironic” vs. “ironical”
Being that this highly related question primarily asked whether ironical is actually a word (and if it is used regionally), I'm interested to know whether there is a difference between it and ironic ...
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votes
3answers
106 views
'Monthly' and 'annual' as descriptors
When I am describing a service that is billed for once a month I write, "This is a monthly service." When describing a service that is billed for once a year I use, "This is an annual service."
...
11
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3answers
997 views
Suffixing by “-rama”, “-orama” or “-arama” — how did this begin?
Suffixing by -rama, -orama or -arama — how did this begin? I mean words like futurama, foodarama, etc.
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4answers
787 views
Is there a good rule of thumb for plurals from words ending in “o”?
The following words and their plurals seem to be somewhat inconsistent:
combo / combos
concerto / concertos
grotto / grottos / grottoes (?)
hero / heros (?) / heroes
potato / potatos (?) / potatoes
...
4
votes
2answers
473 views
Is there any rhyme or reason to when one should double the last consonant when adding -ed or -ing? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
focussed or focused? The double consonant
Sometimes, final consonants are doubled when adding -ed or -ing to the end of a verb whose penultimate letter is a vowel.
...
4
votes
1answer
164 views
What is the origin of “-ix” as a feminine variation?
Some words are made feminine by altering the suffix to be -ix. Examples:
dominator → dominatrix
executor → executrix
rector → rectrix
What is the origin of this variation?
From my 5 years of ...
1
vote
1answer
187 views
Difference between the use of “resilience” and “resiliency”
I constantly hear people use the word "resiliency" (especially sports broadcasters and the like). I've always used "resilience" instead. Is there a preferred word to use in any given situation?
As ...
1
vote
1answer
113 views
For the verb 'focus' why is the gerund form 'focusing' with a single S, instead of 'focussing' with a double S? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Focussed” or “focused”? The double consonant
The rule that I learned was that when you have a short vowel in the last syllable, you double the last consonant before ...
13
votes
2answers
229 views
What’s going on with “drink > drench”? Is it like “passage > passenger”?
Edit: I am looking for a particular linguistic term for this process (which here uses terminal palatalization to indicate such) of turning passive verbs like drink into active verbs like drench. I ...
6
votes
2answers
140 views
Are there names for consonant-shifts when suffixes are added?
I saw a spelling mistake on an SO question: submittion. That got me wondering, is there a name for the shift of ‑mit‑ to ‑miss‑ in submission, permission, admission and so on? Are there other patterns ...
2
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2answers
138 views
Difference between “presidentship” and “presidency”
What's the difference between presidentship and presidency? Please give examples to show the difference.
2
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2answers
138 views
Should a dash be used when constructing words using suffixes such as -ly, -wise when the resultant word isn't in the dictionary?
Should a dash (-) be used when constructing words using suffixes such as -ly, -wise when the resultant word isn't in the dictionary? For example:
money-wise
moneywise
Which one is better?
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vote
4answers
147 views
What is the adverbial form of “communicational”?
I tried communicationally, but the Free Dictionary doesn’t find it to be a word.
What I am trying to express is that someone is communicationally challenged, basically meaning they can’t communicate ...
2
votes
1answer
178 views
Pronunciation of onomatopoeia, pharmacopoeia, etc
Words such as onomatopoeia and pharmacopoeia incorporate the Greek suffix -poeia, meaning to make or to prepare. Wiktionary's provided etymology for onomatopoeia reads:
From Ancient Greek ...
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3answers
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Creating words with “-able” suffix
What are general rules of thumb for creating adjectives with -able? I wanted to denote an object as having an ability to be tiled, but "tileable" and "tilable" both yielded as incorrect words by spell ...
4
votes
2answers
149 views
When is “-less” used, and when is “-free” used?
When is the suffix "-less" used, and when is the suffix "-free" used?
My initial assumption was that "-free" is used when the absence of something is good, such as "care-free", and "-less" is used ...
8
votes
2answers
229 views
Pedlar vs. peddler
The etymonline entry for peddler reads:
late 14c. (c.1300 as a surname, Will. Le Pedelare), from peoddere, peddere (c.1200, mid-12c. as a surname), of unknown origin. It has the appearance of an ...
