释义 |
-fy, suffix|faɪ| forming verbs. The older Eng. vbs. in -fy are adoptions of Fr. vbs in -fier, which are either adapted from Lat. vbs. in -ficāre or formed on the analogy of vbs. so originating. (The form -fier was used as the representative of L. -ficāre on the analogy of words like saintefier:—sanctificāre.) The Lat. vbs. in -ficāre were originally derivatives of adjs. in -fic-us (see -fic), though subsequently the suffix could be used to form vbs. without the intervention of an adj. They may be divided into three classes (corresponding to three classes of adjectives in -ficus: see -fic), all of which are represented by adapted words in Eng.: (1) vbs. f. ns., with the sense ‘to make, produce’, as pācificāre (orig. intr. to make peace) pacify, ædificāre edify, or ‘to make or convert into something’, as deificāre deify; (2) f. adjs., with the sense ‘to bring into a certain state’, as santificāre sanctify; (3) f. vb.-stems, with causative sense, as horrificāre horrify. In med.L. there was a tendency to substitute -ficāre for -facĕre in the few Lat. vbs. so ending, and hence Fr. and Eng. vbs. in -fier, -fy sometimes correspond to Lat. vbs. in -facĕre; e.g. F. stupéfier (but in pa. pple. stupéfait as well as stupéfié) stupefy, OF. satisfier (but mod.F. satisfaire) satisfy, F. liquéfier liquefy, F. rubéfier rubefy, med.L. caleficare calefy. Exc. in the case of these few vbs. the ending has normally the form -ify (for the reason see -fic). It is now used as the regular rendering of -ficāre in new words adopted from Lat. or formed on assumable Lat. types, and is also freely added to Eng. adjs. and ns. to form vbs., mostly somewhat jocular or trivial, with the senses: ‘to make a specified thing’, as speechify; ‘to assimilate to the character of something’ (chiefly in pa. pple., as countrified); ‘to invest with certain attributes’, as Frenchify. (A large proportion of these vbs are from ns. and adjs. ending in -y or -ey, the suffix then having the form -fy instead of the usual -ify. An early example is beautify, but the analogy on which this word was formed is not clear.) In a few cases the suffix has been quite irregularly added to vb. stems, but the words are either obsolete, as dedify, hindrify, ornify, or merely jocular or illiterate, as argufy. The noun of action related to vbs. in -ify normally ends in -ification, though, by confusion of suffix, petrifaction is used in Eng. where Fr. has more correctly pétrification. The words in which -fy represents L. -facĕre having their corresponding nouns of action ending in -faction. The following examples illustrate the freedom with which this suffix has been used in the formation of nonce-words.
1602Dekker Satiromastix L iv a, Nay by Sesu you shall bee a Poet, though not Lawrefyed, yet Nettlefyed so. 1647Trapp Comm. Ephes. iv. 15 But speaking the truth..Doing the truth..Truthifying. 1775S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. (1783) II. 260 Not that I would have you suppose I am bigotted to frippery, even though you now see me so apefied. 1790A. Seward Lett. (1811) II. 381 Though fashion has now bullified us all. 1834Southey Doctor II. Inter-ch. vi. 119 Either of these misfortunes would have emasculated his mind, unipsefying and unegofying the Ipsissimus Ego. 1844Haliburton Sam Slick in Eng. I. viii. 135 He might have knowed how to feel for other folks, and not funkify them so peskily. 1872[Earl Pembroke & G. H. Kingsley] S. Sea Bubbles viii. 206 The boom of the pigeon is wondrous pleasant and drowsyfying. |