-ine

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | 544 words | Copyright

-ine1 suffix repr. F. -in, fem. -ine and its source L. -īnus, -īna (corr. to Gr. -īnos, -ī́nē), affixed to nominal and some other stems with the sense ‘of or pert. to’, ‘of the nature of’, as canīnus CANINE, dīvīnus DIVINE1, genuīnus GENUINE, sometimes in comb. with another suffix, as in clandestīnus CLANDESTINE. In the terminology of nat. hist. -ine is used freely in adjs. formed on generic names, as accipitrine, passerine, after bovine, equine.

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

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

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

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