The building blocks of English

Affixes

-ty1

Forming nouns.

Via Old French from Latin ‑tas, ‑tat‑.

Examples include anxiety (Latin anxietas), difficulty (Latin difficultas), honesty (Latin honestas), modesty (Latin modestus, keeping due measure), poverty (Latin paupertas, from pauper, poor); others are casualty, penalty and sobriety. Some, such as beauty, royalty, and warranty, were formed in French. However, travesty comes through French from Italian travestire, from Latin trans‑, across, plus vestire, clothe. See also ‑ity.