| 释义 |
-laik
suffix, in the Ormulum written -leȝȝc, in northern and north-midland texts usually -laik, -layk(e, in the Ancren Riwle (MS. Nero) and a few other 13th c. texts -leic, -lec, -leik; appended in ME. to adjs. to form ns. of quality, none of which have survived into mod.Eng. Etymologically it represents the ON. -leik-r str. masc. which (with a parallel form -leike wk. masc.) is the ordinary suffix in ON. corresponding functionally to the Eng. -ness; its use in Eng. must have originated in words adopted from Scandinavian, as godleȝȝc (Orm.) from ON. góðleikr; but already in the Ormulum (c 1200) it is added freely to native English adjs., as in clænleȝȝc cleanness, grediȝleȝȝc greediness. Ormin has in all 28 words of this formation; in some instances he originally wrote -nesse, but -leȝȝc has been substituted ‘in a ruder but apparently contemporary hand’ (editorial note in Orm. II. 349); the reason was perh. metrical, as -leȝȝc and -nesse were in Ormin's prosody equivalent only before a vowel. Except in the Ormulum the suffix is somewhat rare, and no instance is known of its being appended to an adj. of Romanic origin.
The ON. -leik-r corresponds in form with the OE. suffix -lác (usually neut., rarely masc.), now -lock (q.v. for the etymology); but in function the two are distinct, the ON. suffix being appended only to adjs., and the OE. suffix only to ns. or verb-stems to form ns. expressive of action. Occasionally the suffix representing OE. -lác was in northern or north midland texts written -laik, so that it became coincident in form with the Scandinavian suffix, e.g. in dwimerlaik (Alex.), wedlaik (R. Brunne). |