-a¹

Meaning

1. femininemasculinemorphemeused to form a female counterpart of a masculine noun denoting a male
   equus m (“horse”) + -a → equa f (“female horse, mare”)
   flāmen m (“flamen”) + -a → flāmina f (“wife of a flamen”)
2. femininemasculinemorphemeused in substantivised feminine adjective forms, with ellipsis of an implicit feminine head noun
   medicus (“doctor”) + -īnus (adjective-forming suffix) + -a → medicīna f (“medicine”), a type of ars f (“art”)
3. femininemasculinemorphemespecifically, used to form plant names by ellipsis of herba f (“plant; herb”)
   cōnferveō + -us (adjective-forming suffix) + -a → cōnferva f
   cōnsolidō + -us (adjective-forming suffix) + -a → cōnsolida f
4. Late Latinfemininemasculinemorphemeadded to the stem of a third-declension noun to adapt its inflection to that of a feminine first-declension noun
   lendis, lendin- f + -a → lendina f
   pūlex, pūlic- m + -a → *pūlica f
5. femininemasculinemorphemesuffix used to form (usually masculine) agent nouns from the roots of (usually compound) verbs
   adveniō + -a → advena
   ager + colō + -a → agricola

Origins

From Proto-Italic *-ā, from Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ (suffix originally used to form collective nouns, extended in Late PIE to also be a marker of feminine gender). For the use to form masculine agent nouns from verb roots, compare Latin poeta from Ancient Greek ποιητής (poiētḗs).

Meaning

1. morphemenot comparablesuffixed chiefly to the stems of adjectives terminating in -ter, forms adverbs which are frequently also used as prepositions
   citer + -ā → citrā
   exter + -ā → extrā

Origins

From Old Latin -ād, first-declension ablative singular ending.

Meaning

1. morphemescribal abbreviation of -arum
   […] Narſeus Perſa℞ rex orientẽ deuaſtat.1515, Ottonis Phrisingensis Episcopi, folio 39v: