-ation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English -acioun, also -acion,^[2][3][4] partly borrowed from Old French -ation (earlier -aciun) and partly directly borrowed from Latin -ātiō,^[5][4][6] made up of -ātus, the past participle ending of one class of Latin verbs and the source of -ate, and -iō, the source of -ion.^[5][2][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The inherited French form of the Latin ending was Old French -aisun, seen in reason and orison.^[5] French words in -ation were later, literary borrowings from Latin.^[5] Salvation is recorded in English about 1225 as saluaciun.^[5]

Semantic evolution

French verbs in -er far outnumber all others, so its nouns in -ation outnumbered every other form of -tion, and English took them over in bulk.^[5] The OED's note of 1885 counts more than 1,500 in modern use and several hundred obsolete ones.^[5] Most have a verb in -ate (create, creation), and some answer to verbs in -ize (civilization).^[5][3][4] Others have a verb with neither ending (apply, application), or none at all (constellation, duration).^[5][3][4] Pairs like alter and alteration, or tax and taxation, looked as if they were formed on the English verb, and so the ending came to be felt as a living suffix.^[5][4] Hoad dates that practice from the 16th century; it then went on verbs of other origins, as in flirtation, starvation and botheration.^[3][5][4] Barnhart adds that it also feeds back-formations of new verbs.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – saluaciun, salvation.^[5]
• 16th century on – added to miscellaneous English verbs.^[3]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forming nouns for an action or process: computation, hibernation.^[2][7][6]
2. Forming nouns for an instance of an action, or a state, condition or result arising from it: moderation, discoloration.^[7][6][2]

Word family

• -ization
• -isation
• creation
• education
• organization
• translation

Related words

• -ification
• -tion
• -ate
• -ion
• -ize
• -ment

Usage notes

The suffix always carries the main stress of the word, as in demonstration.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press