| 释义 |
-ier
a suffix forming nouns designating position, employment, or profession, derived from ns., rarely agent-nouns from vbs., (1) in words of ME. age, in which the suffix is unstressed, and varies (or has varied) with -yer, as collier, bowyer, (2) in words of later date (since 16th c.), in which the suffix is stressed, and varies with -eer1, as bombardier, cashier, cannoneer (-ier), financier.
1. In words of ME. age, the suffix is of obscure and app. of diverse origin. Among the earliest examples are cottier (cotier), tilier, and bowyer: the first is a. OF. cotier = med.L. cotārius, and its retention of -ier is remarkable, because OF. -ier normally became -er in AFr. and Eng., as in butler, draper, farmer (see -er2 2); tiliere (1250–1400), ‘tiller, cultivator’, appears to be an analogical formation on OE. tilia, early ME. tilie, on the analogy of such pairs as OE. hunta, ME. huntere, since the etymological formation would have been tilere; for bowyer (1297 bowiare, a 1450 bowȝere, bowyere), the suggestion has been made that the i, y, represents the ȝ of ME. boȝe, bow; but this is doubtful. Other examples are collier (15th c. koliere, cholier, colyer, etc.), lawyer 1362 (but also, a 1400, lawer), lockyer (1407 lokier), brazier (1400–50 brasier, brasyere), hellier, hillyer (15th c. helier, helyer, hillyer), spurrier a 1450, halyer 1479 (haulyer 1577), grazier c 1500. Of glazier (a 1400), clothier, hosier, sawyer (a 1500), farrier, pavier, -iour (16th c.), there exist as early (in some cases earlier) forms in -er; courier, cozier, furrier, are 16th c. forms altered from ME. or OF. agent-nouns in -our; drovier, glosier, kiddier, are 16th c. variants of drover, gloser, kidder; lovier a late vulgarism for lover. In other words, as carrier, courtier, currier, soldier, the suffix is really -er (or earlier -our), the i belonging to the Eng. or F. vb. stem. (See also -iour.)
2. In words of later introduction, the suffix is the F. -ier (:—L. -ārius: see -ary). The earlier of these, as bombardier, cannonier (-eer), cashier, cavalier, chevalier, halberdier, harquebusier, date from 16th c.; others, as brigadier, carabinier (-eer), cuirassier, financier, fusilier, gondolier, grenadier, from 17th or 18th c. Some, as cordelier, have taken the place of an earlier form in -er, which goes back to ME. Many of these also occur with the spelling -eer, expressing the English pronunciation; in some this spelling has been established, and from them -eer1 has become a living English suffix, as in auctioneer, charioteer, pamphleteer. |