| 释义 |
-ance, suffix
a. Fr. -ance:—L. -ānt-ia, -ēnt-ia, -ent-ia (see -ence), all of which in words that survived into Fr., or were formed in Fr. as nouns of action, on the pres. pple., were levelled under -ance. But other L. words of this form, subseq. adopted in Fr., took -ence or -ance, according to L. spelling. Thus of popular preservation or formation, aidance, assistance, complaisance, nuisance, parlance, séance; of later learned adoption from L., absence, clémence, différence, diligence, providence, prudence, as well as élégance, tempérance. Words of both classes were adopted in Eng. in their actual Fr. forms, which they still generally retain. But, since 1500, various words orig. in -ance from Fr. have been altered back to -ence, after L.; and all words recently adopted from L., directly or through mod.Fr., or formed on L. analogies, have taken -ence or -ance according to the L. vowel. Hence, mod.E. words in -ance partly represent L. -āntia, but largely L. -entia, -ēntia, through OFr. -ance; partly also mod.Fr. -ance from vbs. of various origin. On the other hand, OFr. -ance:—L. -entia, -ēntia, is, in consequence of refashioning, partly represented by Eng. -ence. For the confusion and inconsistency which this causes in current spelling, as in dependance, -dence, resistance, subsistence, see -ence. As, in many cases, the OFr. vbs. themselves, as well as their derivatives in -ance, were adopted in Eng. (e.g. appear -ance, assist -ance, purvey -ance, suffer -ance), the suffix became to a certain extent a living formative, and was occas. used to form similar nouns of action on native vbs., as abid-ance, abear-ance, forbear-ance, further-ance, hinder-ance, ridd-ance, etc. For meaning, see -ence; and cf. -ancy. |
