Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A suffix of Greek origin, forming, from nouns or adjectives, verbs meaning to be or do the thing denoted by the noun or adjective.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- suffix A verb suffix signifying to make, to do, to practice.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- suffix Used to form
verbs fromnouns oradjectives , the verbs having the sense of "to make what is denoted by the noun/adjective".
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English -isen ("-ise, -ize"), from Old French -iser ("-ize"), from Latin -izāre ("-ize"), from Ancient Greek -ιζειν (-izein), from Proto-Indo-European *-idj- (verbal suffix). Cognate with Gothic (-itjan, verbal suffix), Old High German -izzen (verbal suffix), Old English -ettan (verbal suffix). Also see notes.
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Examples
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And although Sarah Churchwell's assertion (A neologism thang, innit, 10 May) that the -ize spelling is "much-maligned (in Britain)" may be true in some quarters, it isn't here at Oxford, where -ize remains, as it always has been, the preferred form.
Comments
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