-or meaning in Etymology Dictionary
word-forming element making nouns of high quality, state, or problem, from center English -our, from Old French -our (Modern French -eur), from Latin -orem (nominative -or), a suffix put into pp. verbal stems. In addition oftentimes from Latin -atorem (nominative -ator). In U.S., via Noah Webster, -or 's almost universal (but not in glamour, interesting, good), whilst in Britain -our is employed typically (but with numerous exclusions: writer, mistake, senator, ancestor, horror etc.). The -our kind predominated after c.1300, but Mencken states your very first three folios of Shakespeare's performs used both spellings indiscriminately in accordance with equal frequency; only in 4th Folio of 1685 does -our become constant. a limited revival of -or in the Latin design happened from 16c. (governour begun to lose its -u- 16c. and it also was gone by 19c.), and among phonetic spellers both in The united kingdomt and America (John Wesley typed that -or had been "a fashionable impropriety" in The united kingdomt in 1791). Webster criticized the habit of deleting -u- in -our terms inside the first speller ("A Grammatical Institute of English Language," commonly labeled as the Blue-Black Speller) in 1783. His own removal of this -u- began utilizing the modification of 1804, and ended up being enshrined when you look at the important "Comprehensive Dictionary associated with the English Language" (1806), that also established in the U.S. -ic for British -ick and -er for -re, with many other attempts at reformed spelling which never caught on (eg masheen for machine). His attempt to justify all of them on the grounds of etymology and customized of great authors does not hold-up. Fowler notes the Brit drop the -u- whenever forming adjectives ending in -orous (funny) and derivatives in -ation and -ize, which cases the Latin origin is respected (eg vaporize). Once the People in the us started to regularly spell it one-way, but the Uk reflexively hardened their insistence on the other side. "The US abolition of -our this kind of words as honour and favour has most likely retarded instead of quickened English progress in identical path." [Fowler]
-or meaning in General Dictionary
A noun suffix denoting an act; circumstances or quality; such as mistake, fervor, pallor, candor, etc.
View more
- A noun suffix denoting a realtor or doer; as with auditor, person who hears; donor, one that gives; obligor, elevator. It really is correlative to -ee. Generally -or is appended to words of Latin, and -er to those of English, origin. See -er.
-or meaning in General Dictionary
A noun suffix denoting an act; a situation or high quality; such as mistake, fervor, pallor, candor, etc.
Sentence Examples with the word -or
But not to mention the historians' contradictions as to the nature of this program- -or even admitting that some one general program of these conditions exists--the facts of history almost always contradict that theory.