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▪ I. -ite, suffix1
corresponding to F. -ite, L. -īta (-ītēs), ad. Gr. -ῑ́της, forming adjs. and ns. (of adj. origin) with the sense ‘(one) connected with or belonging to’, ‘a member of’, as in ὁπλίτης adj. heavy armed, n. a heavy-armed soldier (f. ὅπλα armour), πολίτης citizen (f. πόλις city). Its fem. form is -ῖτις (-itis). Both the masc. and fem. forms were extensively used in forming technical names of natural products, diseases, etc.
A frequent use in Gr. was to form ethnic and local designations, as ἀβδηρίτης Abderite, σταγιρίτης Stagirite, συβαρίτης Sybarite, ταρταρίτης denizen of Tartarus. Hence, often used by the LXX to render Heb. names in -ī, as in Ἰσραηλίτης Israelite, λευίτης Levite, ἀµαληκίτης Amalekite, Ἰσµαηλίτης Ishmaelite, Μωαβίτης Moabite, σοδοµῖται Sodomites, etc. Later, in Christian use, in the names of sects, styled either after their locality, their founder, or some tenet, rite, or other characteristic, as ἐρηµίτης a desert-dweller, eremite, hermit, νικολαῖται Nicolaitans (pl.), Ἰακωβῖται Jacobites, Μονοϕυσῖται Monophysites, etc. Some of the Greek terms (esp. those in Christian use) were adopted in Latin, either unchanged in -ītēs or often in -īta, the plural (which was more frequent in use) being in -ītæ: thus Stagirītēs, Sybarīta, and, in the Vulgate, etc., Levītēs or Levīta, Israēlitæ, Ismaēlītæ, Ammonītæ, Mōabītæ, Nicolaītæ, Sodomītæ (also Gadītæ, Reubēnītæ, etc., where the LXX have Γάδ, Ῥουβήν); and in later and mediæval writers Marcionītæ, Ebiōnītæ, Azȳmītæ, Marōnītæ, Monophysītæ, etc. Hence the suffix has passed into Fr. and Eng. in the form -ite, pl. -ites. Already in the metrical Genesis & Exodus c 1250 we find Amonit, Arabit; by Wyclif the Vulgate words in -ītæ are duly rendered by forms in -ites, -ytis. In later Biblical versions the ending is extended to other tribal names, e.g. ἀµοῤῥαῖοι, Χαναναῖοι, Vulg. Amorræi, Chananæi, Wyclif Amorrei, Chananei(-ey), 16th c. versions Amorites, Canaanites.
Another frequent use of the termination was to form names of minerals and gems (adjectively with λίθος ‘stone’ understood), e.g. ἀνθρακίτης anthracite, αἱµατίτης blood-stone, hæmatite, ὀϕίτης snake-stone, serpentine, σεληνίτης moon-stone, selenite, etc. Nearly all these occur also in L. in Pliny, who moreover adds several not recorded in Greek. These have been handed down and increased by mediæval and early modern Latin writers de proprietatibus rerum, and have given origin to our modern use of -ite in names of fossils and minerals.
The following are the chief English uses of the suffix:
1. Forming names of persons. (Often also used adjectively.)
a. In words already formed in Gr. or L., of the classes above mentioned, and in analogous terms; e.g. Stagirite, Sybarite; Israelite, Levite, Ammonite, Amorite, Benjamite, Canaanite, Gadite, Gileadite, Hamite, Ishmaelite, Rechabite, Reubenite, Semite, Sodomite, etc.; eremite, Ebionite, Adamite, Jacobite, Marcionite, Maronite, Azymite, Monophysite, Anthropomorphite, Fatimite, etc.
b. In words of modern formation: (a) Denoting an inhabitant of a place; as Sydneyite, Claphamite, Durhamite, Ludlowite: now rare, and mostly somewhat contemptuous. (b) Denoting a disciple, follower, or adherent of a person or doctrine; as Wycliffite, Campbellite, Daleite, Glassite, Irvingite, Puseyite, Simeonite; Brontëite, Darwinite, Hugoite, Ruskinite, Shelleyite, Spencerite, Zolaite; Bryanite, Canningite, Healyite, Jacobite, Luddite, Mackinleyite, Parnellite, Peelite, † Williamite (adherent of William III). So Pre-raphaelite, Silverite, Independent Labourite, etc.
These have a tendency to be depreciatory, being mostly given by opponents, and seldom acknowledged by those to whom they are applied. The following are illustrations of some of these formations:
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, I am not a MacMillanite or a Russelite, or a Hamiltonian, or a Harleyite, or a Howdenite. (Note, All various species of the great genus Cameronian.) 1820Lonsdale Mag. Aug. 350/1 In 1814, the Inghamite churches formed a union with the Daleite churches in Scotland. 1883Athenæum 27 Jan. 116/3 Of Musset, as becomes a good Hugoite, he has nothing to say. 1886Manch. Exam. 13 Jan. 3/2 Legislation which is regarded as a violation of that principle by all thorough-going Herbert Spencerites. 1888Rider Haggard Col. Quaritch i, Other folk, yet more learned, declared it to be an ancient British dwelling..Mrs. Massey..was a British dwellingite. 1891Daily News 5 Mar. 5/2 Swift was a Tolstoite before his day. 1892Athenæum 1 Oct. 449/2 These short stories have not the attractions which the true Zolaite loveth. 1895Times 8 Jan. 9/5 Ireland will see Healyites and Redmondites battling with Dillonites for the honour of representing the united will of the Irish nation. 1897Westm. Gaz. 12 July 3/3 ‘The Shirley country’—as the Spen Valley is now called by Brontëites. 1898Daily News 12 Jan. 6/6 The fine mass meeting of the Independent Labourites.
2. a. Palæont. Used to form the names of fossil organisms, animal or vegetable; as ammonite, belemnite, calamite, dendrite, echinite, encrinite, lignite, trilobite, etc.
These follow the type of Gr. βατραχίτης toadstone, etc., and were at first used in their Latin form in -ītes: see the individual words.
b. Mineral. The systematic ending of the names of mineral species, comprising names of ancient origin in -ίτης, as anthracite, hæmatite, ophite, selenite, or in -ῖτις, as chlorite, hepatite, hyalite, and a vast number of modern names in which -ite is added to an element expressing colour, structure, physical characters or affinities, or to the name of a locality, discoverer, mineralogist, distinguished scientist, or other person whom the discoverer may have desired to commemorate. Examples are albite, azurite, melanite, dichroite, graphite, apatite, calcite, syenite, labradorite, leadhillite, humboldtite, wernerite, brewsterite, danaite, darwinite. Earlier names of minerals have in some cases been displaced by names in -ite, and some names with other endings as -ane, -in, etc. have been conformed to the -ite type. For names of rocks, Dana has suggested the differentiated ending -yte, founded on trachyte, as in aphanyte, dioryte, epidosyte, and the like; but this has not found universal acceptance. It is also used more widely in tektite, and hence in the names of tektites from different regions (as australite, indochinite).
3. Anat. and Zool. Used to form terms denoting one of the constituent parts, segments, or joints of a body or organ; as in somite a segment of the body; so cerite, pleurite, podite, tergite, a segment of the horn or antenna, side, foot, back, etc. Cf. cephalostegite, coxopodite, ischiocerite, ischiopodite.[These forms were introduced (in French) in 1851 by H. Milne Edwards (Observations sur la squelette tégumentaire des Crustacées Décapodes, in Ann. Sci. Nat. (Zool.) 3, XVI. 221). They were app. first used in Eng. in 1855, by C. Spence Bate (Report Brit. Assoc. 1855, 38); but they owe their general use esp. to Huxley (Lect. on General Nat. Hist. 1857, Anat. Inverteb. Anim. 1877, etc.). (F. A. Bather, M.A., Nat. Hist. Museum, South Kensington.)] 4. Chem.
a. Used to form the names of some saccharine substances, glucoses, and other organic compounds, as dambonite, dulcite, erythrite, inosite, isodulcite, mannite, melampyrite, pinite, quercite, sorbite, chiefly f. the names of plants; also of explosives, as cordite, dynamite, herculite, melinite; and of commercial products, as ebonite, vulcanite, etc.[In the earlier of these the suffix was in origin apparently the same as in the preceding groups, mannite being, as it were, the distinctive constituent of manna; but in the names of explosives and other products this sense disappears, and -ite is merely a derivative.] b. In Inorganic Chemistry, -ite is the systematic termination of the names of the salts of acids denominated by adjectives in -ous; e.g. nitrite a salt of nitrous acid, sulphite a salt of sulphurous acid. This was part of the systematic nomenclature introduced by Guyton de Morveau and Lavoisier in their Nomenclature Chimique of 1787.
[In this use, the suffix has no direct connexion with the Gr. -ίτης, but was suggested by, and differentiated from, the suffix -ate (-ate1 3), appropriated to salts of acids in -ic. In the words of the authors cited (Nomencl. Chimique, p. 40), these are ‘terminaisons différentes adaptées à la même racine, de la manière qui a paru le plus convenable au jugement de l'oreille.{ddd}
Sulphate sera le nom générique de tous les sels formés de l'acide sulphurique.
Sulphite sera le nom des sels formés de l'acide sulphureux.
(p. 49) Cette distinction une fois établie nous a donné les nitrates et les nitrites, les phosphates et les phosphites, les acétates et les acétites’.]
A few of the words in -ite have derivative adjs. in -itic, as Hamitic, Semitic, dendritic, encrinitic, anthracitic, hæmatitic; many of those in group 1 have adjs. in -itish, as Israelitish, Moabitish.
▪ II. -ite, suffix2
an ending of adjs., adapted from L. pa. pples. in -ītus, -itus, of vbs. in -īre, -ĕre, -ēre, as in ērudītus erudite, exquīsītus exquisite, compositus composite, or from the corresponding Romanic -ito, as favourite; also of ns. derived from the same or from the cognate L. ns. in -us, as appetītus appetite. Also, of verbs formed from the same ppl. stems, as expedite, unite; but from stems in -ĭt, the verbs usually end in -it, as posit, exhibit, merit; this was formerly also usual with adjs., as opposit, recondit. |