Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• -ῖτις ‎(-îtis) feminine

Suffix

-ῑ́της • ‎(-ī́tēs) m ‎(genitive -ῑ́του) first declension

1. Suffix forming a masculine noun: one connected to, a member of; one from a particular place (demonym)

Usage notes

Originally forming generic adjectives, such as πολ-ίτης ‎(pol-ítēs, “one from the city, citizen”) from πόλις ‎(pólis, “city”); ὁπλ-ίτης ‎(hopl-ítēs, “one with armour, hoplite”) from ὅπλον ‎(hóplon, “large shield”).

But by the Hellenistic period, both the masculine -ίτης and the feminine -ῖτις became very productive in forming technical terms for products, diseases, minerals and gems (adjectives with elliptic λίθος ‎(líthos, “stone”)), ethnic designations and Biblical tribal names. These technical uses survive in modern languages in Greek loanwords for diseases (in -itis), for minerals (in -ite) and for nations, tribes or religious sects (plurals in -ites), partly also in common nouns such as hermit.

Declension

Descendants

• Latin: -ītēs

See also

References

• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920), “Part III: Formation of Words”, in A Greek grammar for colleges, Cambridge: American Book Company, § 843