-ancysuffix

A modern English differentiated form of the earlier -ance suffix, expressing more distinctly the sense of quality, state, or condition, often belonging to Latin ns. in -ntia, as in ēlegāntia ‘elegant-ness,’ prūdēntia ‘prudentness,’ as distinct from the sense of action or process, regularly expressed by the French form -ance, as in aid-ance, assist-ance, guid-ance, admitt-ance. Partly used to form new words, partly to refashion earlier words in -ance, expressing quality. If the Latin diligentia, elegāntia, temperāntia, prūdēntia, were now for the first time adopted as English, they would be made diligency, elegancy, temperancy, prudency; they owe their existing forms in -nce, to the fact that they were adopted from French, long before -ncy came into use. But many words, once like these, have been refashioned, and now appear with -ncy; e.g. constancy, infancy, piquancy, vacancy; the modern tendency being to confine -nce to action, and to express quality or state by -ncy; cf. compliance n., pliancy n., annoyance n., buoyancy n. For the formation see -ency suffix, and cf. -acy suffix, -cy suffix.