FromMiddle English-ous, fromOld French-ous,-os,-us, fromLatin-ōsus(“full of”).Doublet of-ose and-wise in unstressed position. Many English adjectives ending in-ous were taken from preexisting French or Latin adjectives that end in one of the above suffixes (e.g.envious corresponds directly to Old Frenchenvious which in turn corresponds directly to Latininvidiōsus). In addition,-ous (or the variant form-ious) has at times been attached to English nouns to form derived adjectives that lack precedents in French or Latin, such asslumberous fromslumber orblizzardous fromblizzard. It has also been used in some cases as a means of adapting adjectives borrowed from Latin that originally ended simply in-us, -a, -um (for example,obvious andprevious are derived from Latinobvius andpraevius, not*obviōsus or*praeviōsus).
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Note: Translations of English words ending in-ousdo not necessarily end in the suffixes listed below.
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FromOld French-ous,-us,-eus, fromLatin-ōsus.
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