-icity

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: -ičitý

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

-ic + -ity

Pronunciation[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-icity

  1. Used to form nouns, denoting a quality or condition, from adjectives, especially ones ending in -ic (in which case "ic" is not duplicated (see -ity)).
    Italian + ‎-icity → ‎Italianicity
    electric + ‎-icity → ‎electricity

Derived terms[edit]

nouns that end in -icity without adjectives that end in -ic
nouns that end in -icity with corresponding adjectives that end in -ic

Related terms[edit]

References[edit]

  • English Words with Native Roots and with Greek, Latin, or Romance Suffixes, George Albert Nicholson (University of Chicago Press, 1916), page 12: lists "-icity" as a foreign suffix "Goth" has taken
  • The unmaking of Soviet Life, Caroline Humphrey (2002), page 226: "Barthes (1985, 37) points out that the advertisement does not just give the message that the product is Italian; it evokes "Italianicity". The suffix -icity serves to produce an abstract substantive from an adjective. "Italianicity is not Italy; it is the condensed essence of all that can be Italian, from spaghetti to painting." A similar mythicizing effect is produced in Russian in political discourse by adding the suffix -shchina to a proper name."
  • The Etymological Reader, Epes Sargent and Amasa May (1872), Suffixes of English Words, page 37: "-ACITY, -ICITY, -OCITY, n., the state of having, etc., signified by the above suffixes, -aceous, etc.; as, veracity, duplicity, ferocity."