Definition:
A letter or group of letters added to the end of a word or stem (i.e., a base form), serving to form a new word or functioning as an inflectional ending. Adjective: suffixal. See also:
Etymology:
From the Latin, "to fasten underneath"Examples and Observations:
- "It is often possible to tell the era of a product's development by its termination. Thus products dating from the 1920s and early 1930s often end in -ex (Pyrex, Cutex, Kleenex, Windex), while those ending in -master (Mixmaster, Toastmaster) generally betray a late-1930s or early-1940s genesis."
(Bill Bryson, Made in America, 1994) - "The number of suffixes in Modern English is so great, and the forms of several, especially in words derived through the French from Latin, are so variable that an attempt to exhibit them all would tend to confusion."
(Walter W. Skeat, Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 1882) - "Gazebo: The name is an 18th-century joke word combining 'gaze' with the Latin suffix 'ebo,' meaning 'I shall.'"
(Encyclopedia Britannica Online) - "Good things don't end in -eum; they end in -mania or -teria."
(Homer Simpson, The Simpsons) - "Suffixes display all kinds of relationships between form, meaning, and function. Some are rare and have only vague meanings, as with the -een in velveteen. Some have just enough uses to suggest a meaning, as with -iff in bailiff, plaintiff, suggesting someone involved with law."
(Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 2001)
Pronunciation: SUF-icks
