-ous
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English -ous, from Old French -ous, -os, -us, from Latin -ōsus (“full of”). Doublet of -ose and -wise in unstressed position.
Many English adjectives ending in -ous were taken from preexisting French or Latin adjectives that end in one of the above suffixes (e.g. envious corresponds directly to Old French envious which in turn corresponds directly to Latin invidiōsus). In addition, -ous (or the variant form -ious) has at times been attached to English nouns to form derived adjectives that lack precedents in French or Latin, such as slumberous from slumber or blizzardous from blizzard. It has also been used in some cases as a means of adapting adjectives borrowed from Latin that originally ended simply in -us, -a, -um (for example, obvious and previous are derived from Latin obvius and praevius, not *obviōsus or *praeviōsus).
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /-əs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Suffix
[edit]-ous
- Used to form adjectives from nouns, to denote:
- possession of
- presence of a quality in any degree (typically abundance of)
- relation or pertinence to
- aptonym -ous → aptonymous
- arrhenotoky -ous → arrhenotokous
- (chemistry) Used in chemical nomenclature to name chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a lower oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ic. For example sulphuric acid (H2SO4) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H2SO3). See Inorganic nomenclature.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]Note: Translations of English words ending in -ous do not necessarily end in the suffixes listed below.
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See also
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old French -ous, -us, -eus, from Latin -ōsus.
Pronunciation
[edit]Suffix
[edit]-ous
- Forms adjectives from nouns or verbs, especially if of Romance origin.
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- English: -ous
References
[edit]- “-ǒus, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Old French
[edit]Suffix
[edit]-ous
- Alternative form of -us
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English suffixes
- English adjective-forming suffixes
- en:Chemistry
- Middle English terms borrowed from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English suffixes
- Middle English adjective-forming suffixes
- Old French lemmas
- Old French suffixes