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Origin and history of -ure

-ure

suffix of Latin origin forming abstract nouns of action from stems of verbs, from Old French -ure and directly from Latin -ura, an ending of fem. nouns denoting employment or result. As the element was active in Old French and Anglo-French, some English -ure words correspond to no Latin original.

Entries linking to -ure

admixture(n.)

c. 1600, "act of mingling," with -ure + admix (1530s), a back-formed verb from admixt "mingled" (early 15c.), a past-participle adjective from Latin admixtus "mixed with," past participle of admiscere "to add to by mingling, mix with," from ad "to" (see ad-) + miscere "to mix" (from PIE root *meik- "to mix"). In Middle English admixt was mistaken as the past participle of a (then) non-existent *admix. The earlier noun was admixtion (late 14c., from Latin admixionem).

composure(n.)

c. 1600, "composition, act of composing, constructing, arrangement" (also, in early use, with many senses now given to compound (n.2)), from compose + -ure. Sense of "tranquility, calmness, composed state of mind" is first recorded 1660s, from composed "calm" (c. 1600). For sense, compare colloquial fall apart "lose one's composure."

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rapture
c. 1600, "act of carrying off" as prey or plunder, from rapt + -ure, or else from French rapture, from Medieval Latin raptura "seizure, rape, kidnapping," from Latin raptus "a carrying off, abduction, snatching away; rape" (see rapt). The earliest attested use in English is with
carburetor
combining form of carbon, + -uret, an archaic suffix from Modern Latin -uretum, used in English to parallel French words in -ure...
our
Old English ure "of us, pertaining to or belonging to us," genitive plural of the first person pronoun, from Proto-Germanic...
pleasure
The ending was altered in Middle English by influence of words in -ure (measure, etc.)....
clerisy
the sages and professors of law and jurisprudence; of medicine and physiology; of music; of military and civil architec[t]ure...
perfection
early 13c., perfeccioun, "consummate state or form, that degree of excellence which leaves nothing to be desired," from Old French perfection "perfection, completeness" (12c.), from Latin perfectionem (nominative perfectio) "a finishing, completing, perfection," noun of action fr
game
c. 1200, from Old English gamen "joy, fun; game, amusement," common Germanic (cognates: Old Frisian game "joy, glee," Old Norse gaman "game, sport; pleasure, amusement," Old Saxon gaman, Old High German gaman "sport, merriment," Danish gamen, Swedish gamman "merriment"), said to
Kyrie eleison
early 13c., a Greek liturgical formula adopted untranslated into the Latin mass, literally "lord have mercy" (Psalms cxxii.3, Matthew xv.22, xvii.15, etc.). From kyrie, vocative of kyrios "lord, master" (see church (n.)) + eleeson, aorist imperative of eleo "I have pity on, show
dyslexia
"a difficulty in reading due to a condition of the brain," 1885, from German dyslexie (1883), from Greek dys- "bad, abnormal, difficult" (see dys-) + lexis "word" (taken as "reading"), from legein "speak" (from PIE root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather," with derivatives meaning "to
nail
Old English negel "tapering metal pin," nægl "fingernail (handnægl), toenail," from Proto-Germanic *naglaz (source also of Old Norse nagl "fingernail," nagli "metal nail;" Old Saxon and Old High German nagel, Old Frisian neil, Middle Dutch naghel, Dutch nagel, German Nagel "finge

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