891: False Suffixes May 17, 2017

Suffixes are pretty common in English and even more in other languages but what is and is not a suffix can be more difficult to determine than at first glance. If they are considered to be morphemes attached to words in order to form a derivative but that don't have meaning on their own, like '-en' which has the power to make words into verbs, adjectives, nouns, and more, this covers most of what makes up a suffix, but leaves room for some confusion and argument. For example, some words have endings that just naturally formed to have certain letter-combinations, so while likely no one would say the '-er' suffix in 'teacher' or 'toaster' is the same as in 'over', with other words like 'mountain', 'fountain', 'obtain' and others it may seem more confusing, since they all have the same ending, and if you know Latin you may even recognize they come from the same word, 'tenere' meaning 'to hold'. This is not considered a suffix however, as without it, the words would not have any meaning. With other possible ones, like '-crat' in 'autocrat', 'democrat', plutocrat' etc. here it is considered a combining form because it contributes to the meaning, but does not determine the function of the words. There will be more on this on a later date, but if you have any questions or comments about suffixes, leave them in the comments.