a suffix of nouns of quality, state, office, etc., many of which accompany adjectives in -acious or nouns or adjectives in -ate
fallacy
papacy
legacy
delicacy
piracy
Word origin
[‹ L -ācia, -ātia (sp. interchangeably in ML, reflecting the Rom merger of the forms); these are inturn complexes of -āc- and -āt--ate1 + -ia-y3. Compare -cracy]