eldertongue

Old English · suffix

-e

Part of speech
suffix, feminine
Declension
weak n-stem
IPA
/e/
Syllables
e (1 syllable)
Modern English
formsmarkscausesi-umlauttypicallysecondn-stemcounterpart

-e1 · suffix · feminine

Senses

  1. Marks the nominative singular of feminine n-stem nouns

    docce (“dock”)

  2. Forms feminine agent nouns, often as a counterpart to masculine agent nouns in -a

    hlǣfdīġe

    bread-kneader, lady

  3. Forms nouns referring to female people from nouns referring to male people

    cyning (“king”) + -e → cyninge (“queen”)

Declension · weak n-stem

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

-e2 · suffix

Senses

  1. forming adverbs from adjectives; -ly

    beorht (“bright, clear”) + -e → beorhte (“brightly, clearly”)

-e3 · suffix

Senses

  1. forms adjectives from nouns, often with the meaning "having" (typically causes i-umlaut)

    ān (“one”) + willa (“will”) + -e → ānwille (“stubborn”)

Declension

Strong declension of -e
MasculineFeminineNeuter
Singular
Nominative -e-u-o-e
Accusative -ne-e-e
Genitive -es-re-es
Dative -um-re-um
Instrumental -e-re-e
Plural
Nominative -e-a-e-u-o
Accusative -e-a-e-u-o
Genitive -ra-ra-ra
Dative -um-um-um
Instrumental -um-um-um
Weak declension of -e
MasculineFeminineNeuter
Singular
Nominative -a-e-e
Accusative -an-an-e
Genitive -an-an-an
Dative -an-an-an
Instrumental -an-an-an
Plural
Nominative -an-an-an
Accusative -an-an-an
Genitive -ra-ena-ra-ena-ra-ena
Dative -um-um-um
Instrumental -um-um-um

-e4 · suffix

Senses

  1. Used to form the first person singular present indicative of strong verbs and class I weak verbs

    drīfan (“to drive”) + -e → drīfe (“I drive”)

-e5 · suffix

Senses

  1. Marks the dative singular of a-stem and ō-stem nouns

    sċip (“ship”) + -e → tō þām sċipe (“to the ship”)

-e6 · suffix

Senses

  1. Marks the accusative and genitive and the nominative and accusative plural of ō-stem feminine nouns

    talu (“tale”) + -e → tale (“tale, tales”)

-e7 · suffix

Senses

  1. Second person plural imperative ending of strong verbs, class 1 weak verbs, and class 3 weak verbs.

    Ġebīde ġē on beorge!

    Tarry ye on the mountain!

All forms (11)

Etymology

From West Germanic *-ā, from Proto-Germanic *-ê, which survives otherwise only in Gothic (and possibly Old Norse).

From Proto-West Germanic *-ī. Beyond that, generally from Proto-Germanic *-ijaz, but also partly merged with *-jaz and athematic *-iz (compare Proto-Norse - (-iʀ)). Note though that -wintre is from Proto-Germanic *-wintruz, since Proto-Germanic u-stem adjectives became ja-stems in West Germanic. Other suffixes derived from u-stem nouns, such as -flēre, might also have been zero derivations in Proto-Germanic.

Likely borrowed from the subjunctive singular Proto-West Germanic *-ē after high vowel apocope resulted in the loss of inherited Proto-West Germanic *-u in heavy stem verbs, and then analogically extended to light stem verbs.

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *-ē, from Proto-Germanic *-ai (a-stem), *-ōi (ō-stem), from the Proto-Indo-European dative singular ending *-ey or locative singular ending *-i as attached to eh₂-stem and o-stem nouns.

A combination of multiple sources: * In the accusative singular, from Proto-West Germanic *-ā, from Proto-Germanic *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *-ā́m, from *-eh₂ (eh₂-stem suffix) + *-m (accusative singular suffix). * In the genitive singular, from Proto-West Germanic *-ā, from Proto-Germanic *-ōz, from Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂s, from *-eh₂ (eh₂-stem suffix) + *-s (genitive singular suffix). * In the accusative plural, from Proto-West Germanic *-ā, from Proto-Germanic *-ōz, from Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂m̥s, from *-eh₂ (eh₂-stem suffix) + *-ms (accusative plural suffix). This suffix was exte…

Likely derived from the weakening of the plural subjunctive ending -en.

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