-ous

-ous
1. a suffix forming adjectives that have the general sense "possessing, full of" a given quality (covetous; glorious; nervous; wondrous); -ous and its variant -ious have often been used to Anglicize Latin adjectives with terminations that cannot be directly adapted into English (atrocious; contiguous; garrulous; obvious; stupendous). As an adjective-forming suffix of neutral value, it regularly Anglicizes Greek and Latin adjectives derived without suffix from nouns and verbs; many such formations are productive combining forms in English, sometimes with a corresponding nominal combining form that has no suffix; cf. -fer, -ferous; -phore, -phorous; -pter, -pterous; -vore, -vorous.
2. a suffix forming adjectival correspondents to the names of chemical elements; specialized, in opposition to like adjectives ending in -ic, to mean the lower of two possible valences (stannous chloride, SnCl2, and stannic chloride SnCl4).
[ME < AF, OF < L -osus; a doublet of -OSE1]

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • -ous — ous·ly; …   English syllables

  • Ous — Ус Caractéristiques Longueur 236 km Bassin 6 880 km2 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • -ous — oussuff. [OF. ous, us, os, F. eux, fr. L. osus, and us. Cf. { ose}.] 1. An adjective suffix meaning full of, abounding in, having, possessing the qualities of, like; as in gracious, abounding in grace; arduous, full of ardor; bulbous, having… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • -ous — suffix forming adjectives from nouns, meaning having, full of, having to do with, doing, inclined to, from O.Fr. ous, eux, from L. osus (Cf. OSE (Cf. ose) (1)). In chemistry, having a lower valence than forms expressed in ic …   Etymology dictionary

  • ōus-1 : ǝus- —     ōus 1 : ǝus     English meaning: mouth     Deutsche Übersetzung: “Mund, Mũndung, Rand”     Material: Auf IE *ōus go back: O.Ind. ü ḥ n. “mouth” (compare üs án sd., üsya m n. “mouth, aperture “), Av. üh , ü̊ŋhan ds.; Lat. ōs, ōris… …   Proto-Indo-European etymological dictionary

  • -ous — [əs] [ME < L us & OFr ous, eus, < L osus] suffix 1. having, full of, characterized by [beauteous, capacious] 2. Chem. having a lower valence than is indicated by the suffix IC [mercurous] …   English World dictionary

  • -ous — is an English suffix with the following uses.It is used to create adjectives that describe a quality of the described object derived from the nature of the word the suffix is derived from. For example, porous surface means a surface with a… …   Wikipedia

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  • -ous — ► SUFFIX forming adjectives: 1) characterized by: mountainous. 2) Chemistry denoting an element in a lower valency: sulphurous. Compare with IC(Cf. ↑ ic). ORIGIN Latin osus …   English terms dictionary

  • ous — ovig·er·ous; ovu·lif·er·ous; ozon·if·er·ous; ozon·ous; pa·lav·er·ous; pal·la·dif·er·ous; pal·la·di·ous; pap·il·lif·er·ous; pap·u·lif·er·ous; par·ous; par·ri·cid·i·ous; pec·tin·ous; pe·dig·er·ous; pel·tig·er·ous; pen·tam·er·ous; pe·nu·ri·ous;… …   English syllables

  • -ous — suffix. 1 forming adjectives meaning abounding in, characterized by, of the nature of (envious; glorious; mountainous; poisonous). 2 Chem. denoting a state of lower valence than the corresponding word in ic (ferrous). Derivatives: ously suffix… …   Useful english dictionary

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