The building blocks of English
Affixes
-aire
A person characterized by or linked to the idea in the stem.
French ‑ier or ‑aire, derived from Latin words in ‑arius.
Some examples are millionaire, a person whose assets are worth one million pounds or dollars or more (and other words formed in imitation of it, such as billionaire and zillionaire); commissionaire, a uniformed door attendant at a hotel or theatre (medieval Latin commissionarius, a person in charge); and concessionaire, the holder of a concession or grant. Doctrinaire is now usually an adjective referring to an attempt to impose a doctrine without regard to practical considerations. See also ‑ar2, ‑ary1, ‑er1, and ‑eer.
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