Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- suffix A suffix forming
diminutives from other nouns; compare-ling : - suffix A
frequentative suffix of verbs, indicatingrepetition orcontinuousness : - suffix A suffix forming adjectives from verbs with the meaning of "
prone to ", "tending to ", "apt to ", "capable of "; compare-ative : - suffix A suffix forming
agent nouns from verbs:
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English -el, from Old English -el, -il (diminutive suffix), from Proto-Germanic *-ilaz (diminutive suffix).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English -elen, -len, -lien, from Old English -lian (frequentative verbal suffix), from Proto-Germanic *-lōnan (frequentative verbal suffix). Cognate with West Frisian -elje, Dutch -elen, German -eln, Danish -le, Swedish -la, Icelandic -la. Compare -er.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English -el, -le, from Old English -el, -ol (adjective suffix), from Proto-Germanic *-ulaz (adjective suffix). Cognate with West Frisian -el, Dutch -el, Low German -el, German -el.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English -el, from Old English -el, -ol, -ul (agent suffix), from Proto-Germanic *-ilaz (agent suffix). Cognate with West Frisian -el, Dutch -el, Low German -el, German -el.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word -le.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
madmouth commented on the word -le
Yiddish suffix of endearment. A guy named Moishe would be called Moishele by grandmothers and so forth.
April 23, 2009