rarissimum 25: a derivational rule for forming nouns denoting a disease, an inflammation, or an affection of a body part from nouns denoting that body part
- Where found
- Ancient Greek (Hellenic, IE) and European languages borrowing this derivational rule or indeed the derived and basic nouns themselves.
- Domain
- morphology: word formation
- Subdomain
- derivational categories
- Keywords
- denominal nouns
- Type
- rarissimum
- Universals violated
- none
- Source
e.g., English appendic-itis, bronch-itis, tonsil-itis; also used metaphorically, as in election-itis
Originally, in Greek, the suffix was used for deriving adjectives from nouns, denoting properties prototypically associated with those nouns; the medical specialization being due to the combination of such derived adjectives, in their feminine singular form, with the feminine noun nósos ‘illness’.