-encysuffix

Etymology: < classical Latin -entia, forming abstract nouns < -ent- , present participial stem + -ia -y suffix³, as in e.g. modesty n., fallacy n., etc.; compare -cy suffix. The Latin nouns in -entia (like those in -ia generally) denoted primarily qualities or states; but some of them came by development of sense to be nouns of action or process, and in late Latin and in Romance the formation of nouns of action became the normal function of the suffix. Consequently the English nouns in -ence suffix (which are adaptations of Latin types in -entia either through French or according to French analogies) have very frequently the sense of action or process, either in addition to, or to the exclusion of, that of quality or state. The nouns in -ency , on the other hand, being purely English adaptations of the Latin types, have properly only the sense of quality or state, and concrete senses thence developed. As exemplifying this difference of use between the two suffixes, compare recurrence n. and currency n., confluence n. and fluency n., residence n.¹ and presidency n. When the same word exists in both the -ence and the -ency forms, the tendency is (where the sense of the verbal etymon permits) to restrict the former to action or process (i.e. to connect its meaning rather with that of the verb than with that of the adjective), while the latter is used to express quality; compare coherence n. and coherency n., persistence n. and persistency n. In a few instances both forms of a word have equally the sense of quality or condition; in most of these cases the one or the other of the forms has become obsolete or archaic; where they are both in current use, the distinction usually is that -ency has a more distinct reference to the sense of the related adjective or noun in -ent , considered as the predicate of some particular subject; compare for example, ‘sentience is an attribute of animals’ with ‘some maintain the sentiency of plants’. Compare -ancy suffix.