suffix

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from New Latin suffixum,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the noun use of the neuter of Latin suffīxus (“fastened, fastened below”), the past participle of suffīgō (“to fasten underneath, fix on”),^[2][3][7][5] formed from sub- (“under”) and fīgō (“to fasten, fix”),^[2][3][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *dheigw- (“to stick, fix”).^[3] The OED compares French suffixe.^[2] The verb is partly from the same Latin participle and partly formed from the noun.^{[2][5][9][10]} The Latin verb also gives affix, prefix and infix, and goes back to the same verb as fix.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb, to fix or place under, to subjoin: 1604, in Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall.^[2][4] The grammatical noun and verb are first recorded in 1778, in Robert Lowth's notes on Isaiah.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The early verb used the literal Latin sense, to fasten or place below.^[2][3] The grammatical use arrived together for noun and verb in 1778, for an element attached to the end of a word or stem to form a new word or an inflection, such as -ness or -ing, and for adding such an element.^{[2][3][10][5]} In mathematics the noun has meant, from 1842, an index written below and to the right of a symbol, a subscript.^[2][9] The noun suffixation is recorded from the late 19th century.^[10]

Timeline

• 1604 – verb, to fix or place under, to subjoin.^[2][4]
• 1778 – noun, an element added at the end of a word; verb, to add as a suffix.^[2][4][3]
• 1842 – in mathematics, an index written to the right of a symbol.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An affix added at the end of a word or stem to form a derivative or an inflection, such as -ful in careful; compare prefix.^[11][5][2]
2. Anything added at the end of something else.^[11]
3. In mathematics, an index written below and to the right of a symbol; a subscript.^[5][2]

Verb

1. To add a morpheme as a suffix to a word: English suffixes -ly to many adjectives.^[11][5][2]
2. To add something at the end of a sentence, comment or piece of writing.^[11]
3. To fix or place under; to subjoin.^[2][10]

Word family

• suffixal
• suffixation

Related words

• affix
• crucifixion
• fix
• fixation
• infix
• postfix
• prefix
• soffit

Usage notes

The noun is stressed on the first syllable, /ˈsʌfɪks/; the verb can also be stressed on the second, /səˈfɪks/.^[2][5][11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins