-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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  • -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

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  • 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

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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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