-ent

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | 412 words | Copyright

-ent suffix repr. F. -ent — L. -ēns, -ent-, prp. ending belonging to the IE. series *-ont-, *-ent-, *-nt-, repr. by Skr. -ant-, Gr. -ont-, Goth. -and-, OE. -end-. Examples are confident, latent, salient; many such ppl. adjs. had become sbs. in L. or in F.; whence e.g. agent, parent, president, student; some are names of inanimate objects or abstractions, as continent, deterrent, solvent, torrent.

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T. F. HOAD. "-ent." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "-ent." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-ent.html

T. F. HOAD. "-ent." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-ent.html

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