- 1nB2/ˈsʌfɪks/字尾
A letter, or a group of letters, that you add to the end of a word to make a new word — like the -ness in kindness or the -ly in suddenly.
示範例句 · Example
In the word "kindness", "ness" is a suffix.
逐字在 kindness 這個字裡，ness 是一個字尾。
suffix 是加在一個字「後面」的那幾個字母，加上去之後會變成另一個字，而且常常連詞性也跟著換：kind（形容詞）加 -ness 變成 kindness（名詞），sudden（形容詞）加 -ly 變成 suddenly（副詞）。加在字前面的那一種叫 prefix（字首），像 un- 加在 happy 前面變成 unhappy——一個在前、一個在後，剛好是一個字的兩端。suffix 可以想成「釘在字尾的小零件」：它的拉丁文老家 sub-（後面、下面）＋ figere（釘上去）就是這個畫面，原本的字還完整地留在裡面（kindness 裡看得到 kind）。
常見搭配
add a suffix (to a word)
在字的後面加上字尾
to put a suffix on the end of a word
If you add the suffix -ful to care, you get careful.
the suffix -ly / -ness
「the suffix ＋ 那幾個字母」，用來指名某個字尾
the way to name one particular suffix
The suffix -ly often turns an adjective into an adverb.
prefixes and suffixes
字首和字尾
the parts added to the front and the end of words
This week we are studying prefixes and suffixes.
a common suffix
常見的字尾
a suffix that appears in a lot of words
-ing is one of the most common suffixes in English.
a noun suffix / an adjective suffix
造出名詞／形容詞的那種字尾
a suffix that makes a word of that kind
-ness is a noun suffix: kind becomes kindness.
意思相反
core核心畫面
You can think of it as a small piece fixed onto the back end of a word. The word already stands on its own; the suffix rides behind it and changes what kind of word it is — kind becomes kindness, sudden becomes suddenly. Nothing at the front moves.
From the word’s history
From Latin suffixus, the past participle of suffigere 'to fasten underneath or below', from sub- 'under, close to' + figere 'to fix, fasten'. The modern grammatical sense keeps the literal picture: something fastened on at the end.
來自拉丁文 suffixus，是 suffigere（釘在下面／後面）的過去分詞，由 sub-（在下面、緊接著）＋ figere（釘、固定）組成。現代文法上的用法幾乎原封不動保留了那個字面畫面：被釘在後端的東西。同一個 figere 也給了英文 fix；把 sub- 換成 pre-（在前）就是 prefix 字首。
Oxford English Dictionary / Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline), s.v. "suffix"
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
suffixnoun/ˈsʌfɪks/
- 1
grammarhuman-scienceslinguistic-morphologyA morpheme added at the end of a word to modify the word's meaning.
- The suffix "-able" changes "sing" into "singable".
- The praenomen and nomen for the most part consisted of simple stems with the suffix -us or -ius, […]
- 2
mathematicssciencesA subscript.
- 3
computingengineeringmathematicsA final segment of a string of characters.
- The string "abra" is both a prefix and a suffix of the string "abracadabra".
suffixverb/ˈsʌfɪks/
- 1
To append (something) to the end of something else.
- [...] by suffixing the ending -or to collaborat-, the stem of collaboratus, pp. of collaborare, to work together with.
- 2
To cause (something) to be appended with something else at its end.
- [...] by suffixing the verb with the gerundive suffix [...]
- 3
To treat or use as a suffix.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。