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  • Where Do English Words Derive From?

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    The document provides information about the supplementary suffix "-er" in three periods of English: 1) Old English used "-er" to denote a person or thing that performs an action or has an attribute, and to denote a person concerned with a subject. 2) Middle English used "-er" to form comparatives, frequentative verbs, and nouns corresponding to Latin suffixes. 3) New English uses "-er" to form informal nouns through distortion of root words, and to denote verbal actions or documents from Anglo-Norman French.

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    The document provides information about the supplementary suffix "-er" in three periods of English: 1) Old English used "-er" to denote a person or thing that performs an action or has an attribute, and to denote a person concerned with a subject. 2) Middle English used "-er" to form comparatives, frequentative verbs, and nouns corresponding to Latin suffixes. 3) New English uses "-er" to form informal nouns through distortion of root words, and to denote verbal actions or documents from Anglo-Norman French.

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    10 views1 page

    Where Do English Words Derive From?

    Uploaded by

    Сам Castoq
    The document provides information about the supplementary suffix "-er" in three periods of English: 1) Old English used "-er" to denote a person or thing that performs an action or has an attribute, and to denote a person concerned with a subject. 2) Middle English used "-er" to form comparatives, frequentative verbs, and nouns corresponding to Latin suffixes. 3) New English uses "-er" to form informal nouns through distortion of root words, and to denote verbal actions or documents from Anglo-Norman French.

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    of 1

    V.

    Supplementary
    Supplementary I
    -ER

    Period Function Examples Origin


    denoting a person or thing that
    performs a specified action or farmer, sprinkler
    activity
    denoting a person or thing that foreigner, two-
    -ere, of Germanic
    has a specified attribute or form wheeler
    origin
    denoting a person concerned with
    milliner, philosopher
    a specified thing or subject
    Old English

    denoting a person belonging to a city-dweller, New


    specified place or group Yorker
    suffix -ra (adjectival),
    forming the comparative of
    smaller, faster -or (adverbial), of
    adjectives and adverbs
    Germanic origin
    -erian, -rian, of
    forming frequentative verbs glimmer, patter
    Germanic origin
    ending
    forming nouns butler, danger corresponding to
    Latin -arius, -arium
    ending
    corresponding (via
    border
    Old French -eure) to
    Middle English

    Latin -atura
    forming nouns
    ending
    corresponding (via
    laver
    Old French -eor) to
    Latin -atorium
    from Anglo-Norman
    denoting verbal action or a disclaimer,
    French (infinitive
    document effecting such action misnomer
    ending)
    probably an
    extended use of -er
    New English

    forming nouns used informally, for denoting a doer;


    usually by distortion of the root footer, rugger originally Rugby
    word School slang, later
    extended into
    general use

    13

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