-ery

suffix forming nouns denoting:
1 a class or kind (greenery; machinery; citizenry).
2 employment; state or condition (archery; dentistry; slavery; bravery).
3 a place of work or cultivation or breeding (brewery; orangery; rookery).
4 behaviour (mimicry).
5 often derog. all that has to do with (knavery; popery; tomfoolery).
Etymology: ME, from or after F -erie, -ere ult. f. L -ario-, -ator

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-ery, suffix

ME. -erie, forming ns., first occurs in words adopted from Fr., and after the analogy of these has been extensively used as an Eng. formative.

1. The Fr. -erie is of two distinct origins: a. Representing a com. Romanic -aˈria (Pr. -aria, It. -eria, Sp. -eriacua), produced by the addition of the suffix -ˈia (Fr. -ie, -y³) to ns. or adjs. formed with the L. suffix -ārio- (Fr. -ier, -er). A large proportion of the Fr. ns. in -ier, -er (see -er²) are designations of persons according to occupation or office; their derivatives in -erie denote sometimes the class of goods in which these persons deal, as draperie drapery, f. drapier draper; sometimes their employment or art, as archerie archery, f. archer archer; sometimes the place where their occupation is carried on, as boulangerie bakery, f. boulanger baker. After the analogy of these, many Fr. words were formed with -erie from ns. and adjs. without the intervention of a derivative in -ier. Examples of the varying force of the suffix are soierie silk goods, f. soie silk; niaiserie foolish conduct, f. niais foolish; juiverie Jewry, f. juif Jew. b. Resulting from the addition of the suffix -ie to agent-nouns in OF. -ere, -eor (mod.F. -eur):—L. -ātor, -ātōrem. After the analogy of words thus formed, the suffix -erie was used to form derivatives immediately from verb-stems. Of the Fr. ns. in -erie derived from vbs. (either through an agent-noun or directly) some denote a class of actions, as tromperie deceit, f. tromper to deceive; others an occupation, art, etc., as confiserie the business of a confectioner, f. confire to preserve fruits, etc.; others the place where an occupation is carried on, as brasserie brewery, f. brasser to brew.

2. a. Of the Eng. words ending in -ery many are adoptions from Fr., as battery, bravery, cutlery, nunnery, treachery. Many others are formed on ns. in -er, and are properly examples of the suffix -y³; but in individual instances it is often uncertain whether a word was originally formed on an agent-noun in -er or directly on the verb. The derivatives of ns. in -er and of verbs for the most part denote the place where an employment is carried on, as bakery, brewery, fishery, pottery; occasionally they denote classes of goods, as confectionery, ironmongery, pottery; after the analogy of such words, the suffix is added to ns. with a general collective sense (= ‘-ware’, ‘-stuff’, or the like) as in crockery, machinery, scenery. The words formed by adding -ery to ns. sometimes (though rarely) signify a state or condition, as slavery; oftener the force of the suffix is ‘that which is characteristic of, all that is connected with’, in most cases with contemptuous implication, as in knavery, monkery, popery; another frequent use is to denote the place where certain animals are kept or certain plants cultivated, as piggery, rookery, swannery, vinery. During the last century this suffix in pl. form has been rather extensively used in the coinage of jocular nonce-words; the Fisheries Exhibition held at South Kensington in 1883 having been colloquially known as ‘the Fisheries’, the name ‘Healtheries’ was commonly given to the succeeding Health Exhibition, and the Colonial and Indian Exhibition was called ‘the Colinderies’; an exhibition of bicycles and tricycles was called ‘the Wheeleries’. These formations are often imitated colloquially. Cf. ‘The Dukeries’ (after the analogy of ‘The Potteries’) as a name for the tract of country occupied by the great ducal estates in Notts. and North Derbyshire. b. In modern, chiefly U.S., use, after bakery (= baker's shop or works), and similar words, this suffix has gained considerable currency in denoting ‘a place where an indicated article or service may be purchased or procured’, as beanery, bootery, boozery, breadery, cakery, carwashery, drillery, drinkery, eatery, hashery, lunchery, mendery, toggery, wiggery.

3. In many words this suffix has now the contracted form -ry, q.v.