253: less versus -less Aug 18, 2015

'Less' as a determiner, pronoun, or even adverb is slightly different to its form as a suffix, '-less'. '-Less' comes from the Old English '-lēas', which in turn comes from 'lēas' meaning ‘devoid of’.'Less has its own etymology: it derives from Old English, 'lǣssa', which is related to Old Frisian word, 'lēssa', from an Indo-European root shared by Greek 'loisthos' which means ‘last’.