An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A suffix of adjectives often corresponding to verbs in -esce and nouns in -escence. → luminescent.

From -escentia, from escens, from esse "to be," → existence, + -ia.

→ -escence.

Suffix meaning "to make, cause to be."

From Fr. -fier, from L. -ficare, from facere "to make, do;" cognate with Pers. dâdan "to give;" → fact.

Suffix -idan forming infinitives; kardan "to do, to make," → -ize; sâxtan "to build, make, fashion," → perfect; ârdan contraction of âvardan "to bring; to cause, produce" (Mid.Pers. âwurtan, âvaritan; Av. ābar- "to bring; to possess," from prefix ā- + Av./O.Pers. bar- "to bear, carry," bareθre "to bear (infinitive)," bareθri "a female that bears (children), a mother;" Mod.Pers. bordan "to carry;" Skt. bharati "he carries;" Gk. pherein; L. fero "to carry").

A combining form (also -gene) used in the formation of compound words, meaning: 1) "one that generates:" → hydrogen, → halogen, andogen, and so on. 2) "one that is generated, produced:" exogen, cultigen, phosgene.

From Fr. -gène "producing," Gk. -genes "produced, born," → generate;

A combining form of genesis.

From L. genesis, from Gk. genesis "origin, generation," from gignesthai "to be born," related to genos "race, birth, descent," cognate with Pers. zâdan "to bring forth, give birth," → generate.

A combining form meaning "angled, angular," used in the formation of compound words. → heptagon, → hexagon, → polygon.

From Gk. gonia "angle," related to gony "knee;" L. genu "knee;" Mod.Pers. zânu "knee;" Av. žnav-, žnu- "knee;" Skt. janu-; PIE base *g(e)neu-.

From bar "side; breadth; breast," variant var (Mid.Pers. var "breast;" Av. vouru "wide, broad, extended" (vourucašāni- "looking far"), related to varah- "breast;" cf. Skt. urú- "wide, broad," úras- "breast;" Gk. eurus "wide, broad;" PIE base uer-, ueru-s"wide, broad"); -guš "corner, angle," Mid.Pers. gošak "corner."

A combining form meaning "something drawn, written" (diagram, spectrogram, oscillogram).

From Gk. -gramma, combining form of gramma "something written or drawn," → graph.

-Negâšt, from negâšt "drawn, written;" p.p. of negâštan, negârdan "to paint, write," → graph.

A suffix meaning "drawn, written," specialized in meaning to indicate the instrument rather than the written product of the instrument.

A suffix, from Gk. -graphos "(something) drawn or written, one who draws or writes," from graphein "to draw, write."

A suffix from the stem of negârdan, negâštan "to paint, write," → graph.

An adjective relating to → -graph.

→ -graph + → -ic.

A combining form denoting a process or form of drawing, writing, representing, recording, describing, etc., or an art or science concerned with such a process. Examples: geography; orthography; → photography; → radiography; → selenography; → tomography.

→ graph.

A combining form meaning "face" used in the names of geometrical solid figures having the form or number of faces specified by the initial element.

N.L., from Gk -edron, from hedra "seat, base, chair, face of a geometric solid," from PIE root *sed- "to → sit."

Dimé, from dim, → face.

A suffix forming a noun meaning "healing, medical practice." Same as → -iatry.

From -iatr(y), from Gk. iateria "heling," iatros "heal", + → -ics.

Pezeški, → medicine, darmâni, from darmân, → remedy.

Same as → -iatrics.

A suffix forming adjectives from nouns and bearing several senses; adjective suffix of nouns ending in → -ics.

→ -ics.

A suffix of nouns that denotes science, knowledge, principles, characteristic actions or activities, such as → physics, → statistics, → ballistics, politics, ethics. See also → -logy.

Suffix -ics, from -ic + plural suffix -s, from O.Fr. -ique, from L. -icus, Gk. -ikos; cf. O.E. -ig, from P.Gmc. *-iga, Ger. -ig.

Mod.Pers. -ik, from Mid.Pers. -ik or -ig, possibly from the Av. noun and adjective forming suffix -ika, -ka, -aka (as in ainika- "face," maršdika- "mercy," pairikā- "fairy," kasvika- "trifling," kutaka- "small," ahmāka- "ours"). In Mid.Pers. it had an extensive use for creating adjectives of relation. Some examples:
cihrik, cihrig "natural," from cihr (Mod.Pers. cehr);
gohrik, gohrig "natural, essential," from gohr (Mod.Pers. gowhar);
gumânik, gumânig "doubtful," from gumân (Mod.Pers. gomân);
kunišnik "doable, related to action," from konišn (Mod.Pers. koneš);
mânik, mânig "household belonging, household member," from mân (Mod.Pers. mân);
manik "mine, related to me," from man (Mod.Pers. man);
narik "related to male," from nar (Mod.Pers. nar);
xvartik, xwarišnig "edible," from xvart, xwarišn (Mod.Pers. xord, xoreš);
gâsânik, gâhânig "related to the Gathas (the oldest songs of the Avesta, which are attributed to Zarathushtra himself)," from gâsân (Mod.Pers. gâhân);
dâtik, dâdig "legal, concerned with the law," from dât (Mod.Pers. dâd).

Although it has changed into -i in Mod.Pers. (like O.E. -ig into E. -y, as in juicy, dreamy), it is extant in a number of adjectives: târik "dark;" nazdik "near;" bârik "narrow;" zandik (Arabicized zandiq) "heretic;" Monjik (Termezi), pen name of an 11th century Persian poet, from monj "honeybee," referring to his poems being as sweet as honey. The suffix is active in the Tabari dialect, as in larzenik "subject to fear, full of fear, timorous, fearful," ramendik "timid, fugitive," xordinik "very small," bermendik, bərmənik "person who cries easily, highly sensitive person," from bərmən "cry," and also appears as -ij in yušij "related to, belong to Yuš (a famous village in Mâzandarân)," and in the dialect of Boyin-Zahra dehij "villager, peasant, rustic" from deh "village." In recent years -ik has been reactivated in technical terminology to render E. -ics (Fr. -ique, Ger. -ik), as in the following examples: âvâyik "phonetics;" farmânik "cybernetics;" ma'nâyik "semantics;" nurik "optics;" partâbik "ballistics;" tavânik, niruyik "dynamics;" zabânik "linguistics."

The revival of -ik is interesting for several reasons, mainly:
a) In the European scientific terminology, branches of science are denoted by two suffixes:
1) -logy, as in biology, geology, mineralogy, etc. The Pers. counterpart of this suffix is the widely used -šenâsi, → -logy;
2) -ics, as in biotics, dynamics, kinematics, mathematics, etc. Lacking a Pers. equivalent until recently, -ics was equated with -logy. However, the Pers. suffix -ik produces helpful semantic nuances and allows us new constructions from the same base, for example:
→ biology "zistšenâsi;"
→ biotics "zistik."
b) Moreover, in some cases -ik is more efficient than -šenâsi. For example, if we translate ballistics by partâbšenâsi, how should we render ballistic missile? Mušak-e partâbšenâsi, mušak-e partâbšenâxti, or mušak-e partâbšenâsâné? All these possibilities seem unfitting, and no matter which adjective we choose among them the problem remains. The reason is that here ballistic does not really refer to the science (-šenâsi) but points to the action of throwing, → ballistic missile. This problem can be turned around using -ik: mušak-e partâbik.
c) It is not phonetically straightforward in Pers. to make adjectives with the -i suffix from words which end in -i, in particular with -šenâsi. The use of -ik solves this problem and produces adjectives which themselves do not end in -i, for example → astronomical unit "yekâ-ye axtaršnâsik" instead of "~ axtaršnâxti".

A suffix used to form names of chemical compounds.

From -ide, extracted from Fr. → oxide.

Suffix denoting "family of," as in Andromedids, Aquarids, Bielids, Draconids, Geminids, Perseids, and so on.

Plural form of L. -id-, from -is, Gk. fem. patronymic suffix; or from L. -ides, from Gk. masc. patronymic suffix.

-iyân plural form of -i, suffix of relation, adjective + -y- euphonic infix (epenthesis) + -ân plural suffix, as in Haxâmanešiyân "Achaemenids," Sâsâniyân "Sasanides," and so on.

1a) A suffix forming the present participle of verbs, e.g. going, observing, writing.
1b) A suffix forming adjectives from participles, e.g. a moving object, a flying bird, a crying baby.
1c) A suffix forming an adjective not derived from a verb, e.g. swashbuckling.
2) A suffix that forms nouns denoting the action of, process of, result of, or something connected with the verb preceding it, e.g. becoming, sleeping, working.

1) M.E. -ing, -inde, from O.E. -ende; cf. Ger. -end, Goth. -and, Gk. -on, L. -ans, Skt. -ant, Av. -ant, Pers. -ân.
2) O.E. -ing, -ung; cf. O.N. -ing, Du. -ing, Ger. -ung.

A suffix denoting several senses, including state or condition, devotion or adherence, principle, doctrine, act, process.

From Gk. -ismos, -isma noun suffixes, often directly, often through L. -ismus, -isma, sometimes through Fr. -isme, Ger. -ismus (all ultimately from Gk.); → -ist.

A suffix of nouns, often corresponding to verbs ending in -ize or nouns ending in → -ism, that is used to form an agent noun indicating adherence to a certain doctrine or custom, practicing a particular skill or profession, and so on.

From Fr. -iste, from L. -ista, from Gk. -istes.

-bâvar, from bâvar "belief;" Mid.Pers. wâbar "belief;" Proto-Iranian *uar- "to choose; to convince; to believe;" cf. Av. var- "to choose; to convince" varəna-, varana- "conviction, faith;" O.Pers. v(a)r- "to choose; to convince;" Skt. vr- "to choose," vara- "choosing."
-gerâ, from gerâyidan "to incline toward; to intend; to make for," infinitive of gerâ, the etymology of which is not clear. Gerâ may be a variant of Mod.Pers. kil "bent, inclined" (k/g and l/r interchanges), from PIE base *klei- "to lean, incline," cognate with L. clinare "to bend" (E. declination, inclination, etc.), Gk. klinein "to cause to slope, slant, incline," Skt. sri- "to lean," O.Pers. θray-, Av. sray- "to lean," (cf. Ger. lehnen, E. lean).
-gerow, -gerav present stem of geravidan "to believe, confide in; to obey;" Mid.Pers. virrôy(i)stan , related to bâvar, as above, ultimately from Proto-Iranian *uar- (Cheung 2007).
-gar from kar-, kardan "to do, to make" (Mid.Pers. kardan; O.Pers./Av. kar- "to do, make, build;" Av. kərənaoiti "makes;" cf. Skt. kr- "to do, to make;" krnoti "makes," karma "act, deed;" PIE base k^wer- "to do, to make").
-mand possession suffix, from Mid.Pers. -omand; O.Pers./Av. -mant; cf. Skt. -mant.

A suffix of adjectives denoting "relating to, characteristic of;" often in adjectives corresponding to nouns in → -ism or nouns in → -ist.

L. -isticus, from Gk. -istikos, → -ist + → -ic.