eldertongue

Old English · suffix

-a

Part of speech
suffix, masculine
Declension
weak
IPA
/ɑ/
Syllables
ɑ (1 syllable)
Modern English
-en-stemagentsnominalisedo-stemsubsequentu-stemadverbs

-a1 · suffix · masculine

Senses

  1. nominative masculine n-stem ending

    ācweorna

    squirrel

  2. used to form the nominative singular n-stem (weak) adjective and subsequent nominalised form

    eald (“old”) + -a → (sē) ealda (“(the/that) old; (the/that) old one/thing”)

  3. used to form masculine agents, usually from verbs

    ġiefan (“to give”) + -a → ġiefa (“giver”)

Declension · weak

Declension of -a
SingularPlural
Nominative -a-an
Accusative -an-an
Genitive -an-ena
Dative -an-um

-a2 · suffix

Senses

  1. Ending forming adverbs

-a3 · suffix

Senses

  1. Forms the nominative, accusative, and genitive plural of o-stem feminine nouns and u-stem masculine nouns

    sunu (“son”) + -a → suna (“sons, sons'”)

-a4 · suffix

Senses

  1. Forms the genitive plural of a-stem nouns

    word (“word”) + -a → worda (“words'”)

-a5 · suffix

Senses

  1. Forms the genitive and dative singular of u-stem nouns

    sunu (“son”) + -a → suna (“son's, son”)

All forms (4)

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *-ō, from Proto-Germanic *-ô. Cognate with Old High German -o.

From Proto-West Germanic *-ō, from Proto-Germanic *-ô.

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *-ō, from Proto-Germanic *-ǫ̂, from the Proto-Indo-European genitive plural ending *-oHom as attached to thematic (eh₂-stem and o-stem) nouns.

Descendants

-e

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-a · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution