-an
Etymology
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Etymology
From Middle English -an, regularly -ain, -ein, -en, from Old French -ain, -ein, or before i, -en (modern French -ain, -en, feminine -aine, -enne), from Latin -ānus (feminine -āna), which forms adjectives of belonging or origin from a noun, being -nus [cognate with Ancient Greek -νος] preceded by a vowel, from Proto-Indo-European *-nós.
Suffix- Of or pertaining to; an adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. (Often added to words of Latin origin, but also used with words of other origins. When a word ends in a, -n is used instead.)
- Synonyms: -al, -ar, -ese, -esque, -ic, -id, -ish, -like, -oid, -ous, -y
- Rome + -an → Roman
- Appended to nouns to form an agent noun. (When males with a profession are distinguished from females, males are -an, females -(i)enne.)
- comedy + -an → comedian
- history + -an → historian
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.001