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Deborah Pickett
Deborah Pickett
@futzle@old.mermaid.town  ·  activity timestamp 4 days ago

Today’s fun English suffix is “-age”, a very flexible nounifier.

“-age” can be stuck on a verb to mean “the thing that is verbed”. Luggage, coverage, appendage, wreckage.

It can be stuck on a verb to mean “the place where verb happens”. Storage, carriage, anchorage.

It can be stuck on an adjective or even another noun to abstract the word’s core concept. Shortage, postage, percentage, roughage, leverage.

It can go on a concrete noun to refer to the noun’s quality collectively. Peerage, sewerage (all the pipes), footage (length of film), mileage.

Then there are words which look like they might have an “-age” suffix but it’s just a coincidence. Sausage, message, advantage.

#etymology #english #language

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angst-ridden wanderer
angst-ridden wanderer
@angst_ridden@turtleisland.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 days ago

@futzle this is the kind of content that makes this place worthwhile.

Some interesting decoys: image, wage, stage, presage, triage.

And I also need to look up the etymology of “suffrage” now.

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Moss Wizard
Moss Wizard
@Moss@beige.party replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 days ago

@angst_ridden @futzle suffrage is an especially tricksy decoy because it sounds like it must mean “suffer-age” but it does not!

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angst-ridden wanderer
angst-ridden wanderer
@angst_ridden@turtleisland.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 days ago

@Moss @futzle depends on the election, doesn’t it? 😂

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