-encesuffix

Etymology: < French -ence < classical Latin -entia , forming abstract nouns, usually of quality, rarely of action < -ent- , -ēns , present participial stem + -ia -ia suffix¹, as in e.g. sapientia sapience n. ( < sapient- , sapiēns knowing); audientia the process of hearing, audience n. ( < audient- , audiēns hearing). As the participial stem had -ent- , -ant- , the derivative nouns had -entia (prūdentia ), -antia (īnfantia ); but all these were levelled in Old French to -ance -ance suffix, in words that survived in popular use, or were formed analogically on the present participle in -ant ; as aidance , assistance , complaisance , contenance , nuisance , parlance , séance . These were nouns of action or process, the value with which the suffix was retained in French as a living formative. But subsequently other Latin words in -ntia , which had not survived in the living language, were readopted on the analogy of these, but with -ence or -ance according to the Latin vowel, e.g. absence , clémence , diligence , élégance , présence , providence , prudence , tempérance , violence . These were nouns of quality or state; all French words in -ence are of this class. Both classes were adopted in Middle English in their actual French forms and senses, which they generally still retain; but since 1500, some of those in -ance have been altered back to -ence after Latin. All words since adopted from or formed on Latin, follow Latin precedent as to -ence or -ance . The result is that the modern spelling of individual words, and still more of groups of cognate words, is uncertain and discordant; compare assistance n., consistence n., existence n., resistance n., subsistence n.; attendance n., superintendence n.; ascendent , ascendant adj., ascendency , ascendancy n., condescendence n.; dependant n., dependent adj., dependance , dependence n., independence n.; appearance n., apparent adj.; pertinence n.², appurtenance n. In sense, words in -nce are partly nouns of action, as in Old French, partly of state or quality, as in Latin. The latter idea is more distinctly expressed by the variant -ncy (see -y suffix³) which has been formed in English as a direct adaptation of Latin -ntia ; see -ency suffix, -ancy suffix.