Allen & Greenough · Part First — Words and Forms › Formation of Words

§241. Names of Actions and Abstract Nouns

Abstract Nouns, mostly from adjective-stems, rarely from noun-stems, are formed by means of the secondary feminine suffixes—

-ia (-iēs), -tia (-tiēs), -tās, -tūs, -tūdō

audāc-ia, boldness;	audāx, bold.
pauper-iēs, poverty;	pauper, poor.
trīsti-tia, sadness;	trīstis, sad.
sēgni-tiēs, laziness;	sēgnis, lazy.
boni-tās, goodness;	bonus, good.
senec-tūs, age;	senex, old.
māgni-tūdō, greatness;	māgnus, great.

In stems ending in o- or ā- the stem-vowel is lost before -ia (as superb-ia) and appears as i before -tās, -tūs, -tia (as in boni-tās, above).
Consonant stems often insert i before -tās: as, loquāx (stem loquāc-),loquāci-tās; buthones-tās,mâies-tās (as if from old adjectives in -es),ūber-tās, volup-tās. o after i is changed toe: as, pius (stem pio-),pie-tās; socius, socie-tās.

a. In like manner -dō and -gō (F.) form abstract nouns, but are associated with verbs and apparently added to verb-stems:—

cupī-dō, desire, from cupere, to desire (as if from stem cupī-).
dulcē-dō, sweetness (cf. dulcis, sweet), as if from a stem dulcē-, cf. dulcē-scō.
lumbā-gō, lumbago (cf. lumbus, loin), as if from †lumbō, -āre.

Note.—Of these, -ia is inherited as secondary (cf. § 234. 2.11). -tia is formed by adding -ia to stems with a t-suffix: as, mīlitia, from mīles (stem mīlit-); molestia from molestus; clēmentia from clēmēns; whence by analogy, mali-tia, avāri-tia. -tās is inherited, but its component parts, tā- + ti-, are found as suffixes in the same sense: as, senecta from senex; sēmen-tis from sēmen. -tūs is tū- + ti-, cf. servitū-dō. -dō and -gō appear only with long vowels, as from verb-stems, by a false analogy; but -dō is do- + ōn-: as, cupidus, cupīdō; gravidus, gravēdō (cf. gravē-scō); albidus, albēdō (cf. albēscō); formidus, hot, formīdō (cf. formīdulōsus), (hot flash?) fear; -gō is possibly co- + ōn-; cf. vorāx, vorāgō, but cf. Cethēgus. -tūdō is compounded of -dō with tu-stems, which acquire a long vowel from association with verb-stems in u- (cf. volūmen, from volvō): as, cōnsuētū-dō, valētū-dō, habitū-dō; whence servitūdō (cf. servitūs, tūtis).

b. Neuter Abstracts, which easily pass into concretes denoting offices and groups, are formed from noun-stems and perhaps from verb-stems by means of the suffixes—

-ium, -tium

hospit-ium, hospitality, an inn; ¹ ¹ The abstract meaning is put first.	hospes (gen. hospit-is), a guest.
collēg-ium, colleagueship, a college;	collēga, a colleague.
auspic-ium, soothsaying, an omen;	auspex (gen. auspic-is), a soothsayer.
gaud-ium, joy;	gaudēre, to rejoice.
effug-ium, escape;	effugere, to escape.
benefic-ium, a kindness;	benefacere, to benefit; cf. beneficus.
dēsīder-ium, longing;	dēsīderāre, to miss, from †dē-sīdēs, out
	of place, of missing soldiers.
adverb-ium, adverb;	ad verbum, [added] to a verb.
interlūn-ium, time of new moon;	inter lūnās, between moons.
rēgifug-ium, flight of the kings;	rēgis fuga, flight of a king.
servi-tium, slavery, the slave class;	servus, a slave.

Vowel stems lose their vowel before -ium: as, collēg-ium, from collēga.

c. Less commonly, abstract nouns (which usually become concrete) are formed from noun-stems (confused with verb-stems) by means of the suffixes—

-nia, F.; -nium, -lium, -cinium, N.

pecū-nia, money (chattels);	pecū, cattle.
contici-nium, the hush of night;	conticēscere, to become still.
auxi-lium, help;	augēre, to increase.
lātrō-cinium, robbery;	latrō, robber (cf. latrōcinor, rob, implying an adjective † latrōcinus).

For Diminutives and Patronymics, see §§ 243, 244.

J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.