-acitysuffix

Etymology: < French -acité and its etymon classical Latin -ācitāt-, -ācitās < -āci- (see -acious suffix) + -tās (see -ty suffix¹; compare -ity suffix), according to the regular pattern of nouns of quality in -tās < 3rd declension adjectives in -i- , as e.g. in vorācitās the quality of being voracious (see voracity n.). Compare Spanish -acidad , Italian -acità . Compare -acious suffix. Compare also -acy suffix.Many adjectives in -acious suffix have a corresponding noun of quality in -acity . In most early cases the noun in fact considerably antedates the corresponding adjective in English (compare e.g. feracity n. and feracious adj., efficacity n. and efficacious adj.). French nouns in -acité appear in the second half of the 14th cent. in Middle French (compare e.g. ténacité tenacity n.) and are chiefly literary adaptations of Latin words; the productive French suffix is -ace (see -acy suffix). Loans from French and Latin into English are recorded from the 15th cent. From the end of the 16th cent. onwards, formations within English occur, in which -ity suffix is added to a Latin adjective in -āx (compare e.g. dicacity n.). Formations with the English suffix -acity first appear in the 17th cent. (compare disputacity n.) and become more common in the 19th cent. (compare e.g. predacity n.), when a variety of formations in this suffix is found, including nouns corresponding to adjectives in -aceous suffix, as lardacity n., saponacity n. From the beginning of the 17th cent. onwards, -ness suffix is added to adjectives in -acious suffix to express the same concept. In most cases, there is an earlier parallel in -acity (compare e.g. audaciousness n. and audacity n.).