Note 1 — MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE

Footnote 1:

(return)

I regard this statement as inaccurate. The -ous in these words does not come from the nominative ending -us, but is the ordinary -ous from L. -osus (through Fr.). It was added to many Latin adjective stems, because the need of a distinctly adjectival ending was felt. Similarly in early French -eux was appended to adjectives when they were felt to require a termination, as in pieux from pi-us. Compare the English capacious, veracious, hilarious, where -ous is added to other stems than those in o. Other suffixes of Latin origin are used in the same way: e.g. -al in aerial, ethereal.—H.B.