I have a question that I hope you can help me with. Both -ful and -ous suffixes mean full of. I know -ous is Latin. How did these two different suffixes come about in the first place? Would you know?
-ful is from from Old English/Germanic as literally ‘full of’.
I guess they have both come to mean the same thing but initially with the under-educated using -ful (ie a bountiful harvest) as oppose to the educated ecclesiastical Latin speakers using -ous (ie a bounteous harvest) dating back to the Middle Ages.
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Oh my days, you made me so happy!
N I can’t believe you spelt ecclesiastical just like that. I haven’t seen this word before. More learning for me!
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You are welcome. I don’t get to drop words like that everyday!
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