Affixes

Adjectives variously derive from nouns, adjectives, and verbs. They can suggest something having the character of the stem (adventuresome, quarrelsome, wholesome), or inducing the state suggested by it (awesome, bothersome, fearsome, flavoursome, irksome, tiresome, troublesome). The sense of some is disguised because the stem is no longer current or the adjective has shifted sense: cumbersome, unwieldy, comes from cumber, a hindrance, obstruction, or burden; handsome from hand, so originally meant something easy to handle or use. The ending is often used to form words of only momentary usefulness; these frequently imply some stimulus inducing a response: barfsome, cringesome, swoonsome.