| 释义 |
-fic, suffix
repr. L. -ficus ‘-making, -doing’ (f. weakened root of facĕre to make, do), forming adjs. (1) from ns., with the sense ‘making, causing, producing’, as in honōrificus, pācificus, or ‘performing’, as sacrificus; (2) from adjs., with the sense ‘performing actions of a certain kind’, as magnificus, also (in late and med.L.) with the sense ‘bringing into a specified state’, as beātificus; (3) from vbs., with the sense ‘causing to’, as horrificus, terrificus; (4) from advbs., only in beneficus, maleficus, adjs. of agency to the phrases bene, male facere to do good, do ill (to). Except in the two last-mentioned words, and in venēficus (contr. for *venēnificus), the suffix -ficus is always preceded by -i-, which is either the stem-vowel or a substitute for it, or a connecting-vowel appended to a consonant-stem. Most of the L. adjs. in -(i)ficus appear in Fr., the termination being adapted as -(i)fique; also in It., Sp., Pg., the form being -fico. In Eng. the suffix prob. first occurred in adoptions from Fr., like magnific, and was often spelt -(i)fique down to the 17th c. In mediæval and mod.L. new formations with -(i)ficus were very common, and many of them have passed, in adapted forms, into the Rom. langs. and Eng., as prolific, scientific. In scientific nomenclature new words are still sometimes formed by the addition of the representative of -(i)ficus to L. stems; such words, if accepted at all, are usually of international currency, and it is often uncertain in which lang. they were first used; Eng. examples are acidific, chylific, felicific, morbific.
Several L. adjs. in -ficus form their comparatives and superlatives, and their nouns of quality, from a stem in -ficent-. In Eng. (but not in Romanic) the adapted forms of these words end in -ficent, as beneficent, magnificent, maleficent, munificent. |