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Origin and history of -le

-le

instrumental word-forming element, the usual modern form of -el (1), a suffix originally used in Old English to form agent nouns.

Entries linking to -le

-el(1)

instrumental word-forming element, expressing "appliance, tool," from Old English -ol, -ul, -el, representing PIE *-lo- (see -ule). In modern English usually -le except after -n-. As in treadle, ladle, thimble, handle, spindle, girdle, whittle; also compare dialectal thrashle "flail, implement for thrashing," from Old English ðerscel, Middle English scrapel "instrument for scraping" (mid-14c.), etc.

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    gamin
    Un groupe d'enfants, de ces petits sauvages vanu-pieds qui ont de tout temps battu le pavé de Paris sous le nom éternel de...gamins, et qui, lorsque nous étions enfants aussi, nous ont jeté des pierres à tous, le soir, au sortir de classe, parce...
    qui vive
    1726, in on the qui vive "on the alert," from French être sur le qui vive "be on the alert," from the phrase qui voulez-vous...(The answer might be Vive la France, Vive le roi, etc.)....
    intramercurial
    The idea originated in France in the 1840s with Urbain Le Verrier, who later became director of the Paris Observatory....about it in 1859 when a French doctor named Lescarbault claimed to have tracked it crossing the Sun's disk and convinced Le...
    morale
    persons engaged in a hazardous enterprise) is recorded by 1831, from confusion with French moral (Modern French distinguishes le...
    alarm
    Alle is itself a contraction of a "to" (from Latin ad; see ad-) + le, from Latin illas, fem. accusative plural of ille "the..." (see le); with arme, from Latin arma "weapons" (including armor), literally "tools, implements (of war)," from PIE root...
    jostle
    .)) + frequentative suffix -le (see -el (3)). According to OED, the usual spelling 17c.-18c. was justle....
    brittle
    With -le, suffix forming adjectives with meaning "liable to." Related: Brittleness....
    missionary
    "one who is sent on a mission, person sent by ecclesiastical authority to labor for the propagation of the faith in a place where it has no indigenous organization," 1650s, from missionary (adj.). The phrase missionary position for "sexual intercourse arrangement in which the cou
    sufficient
    "adequate for a purpose, enough," early 14c., from Old French soficient "satisfactory," or directly from Latin sufficientem (nominative sufficiens) "adequate," present participle of sufficere "to supply as a substitute," from sub "up to" (see sub-) + combining form of facere "to
    Antioch
    ancient city, modern Antakya in Turkey, anciently the capital of Syria, founded c. 300 B.C.E. by Seleucus I Nictor and named for his father, Antiochus. The name, also borne by several Syrian kings and an eclectic philosopher, is a Latinized form of Greek Antiokhos, literally "res

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