Affixes

Many common English nouns that were brought into the language from French in medieval times and later contain this ending. It is not an active word-forming element itself, but is often found in compound ones that are, such as ‑cracy or ‑graphy. Examples are blasphemy, courtesy, family, glory, honesty, jealousy, library, misery, navy, orthodoxy, society, story, subsidy, and victory. See also entries for other compound suffixes containing this form: ‑cy, ‑ance (for ‑ancy and ‑ency) (for ‑ancy and ‑ency), ‑ery, ‑gen (for ‑geny), ‑ity, ‑logy, ‑tomy, ‑ty¹. See ‑ia for words that retain the Latin ending.