Foreign suffixes - Gender - Noun-Parts Of Speech-ESL/Learn English Grammar

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The foreign suffixes are of two kinds:--

[Sidenote: Foreign suffixes. Unaltered and little used.]

(1) Those belonging to borrowed words, as _czarina_, _señorita_,
_executrix_, _donna_. These are attached to foreign words, and are
never used for words recognized as English.


[Sidenote: Slightly changed and widely used.]


(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the
feminine, _-ess_ (French _esse_, Low Latin _issa_), the one most used.
The corresponding masculine may have the ending _-er_ (_-or_), but in
most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the
feminine is formed by adding this termination _-ess_.

Sometimes the _-ess_ has been added to a word already feminine by the
ending _-ster_; as _seam-str-ess_, _song-str-ess_. The ending _-ster_
had then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the
words _huckster_, _gamester_, _trickster_, _punster_.


[Sidenote: Ending of masculine not changed.]


30. The ending _-ess_ is added to many words without changing the
ending of the masculine; as,--

baron--baroness
count--countess
lion--lioness
Jew--Jewess
heir--heiress
host--hostess
priest--priestess
giant--giantess



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