-head

suffix = -HOOD (godhead; maidenhead).
Etymology: ME -hed, -hede = -HOOD

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a native English suffix meaning "state of being" (godhead; maidenhead), occurring in words now mostly archaic or obsolete, many being superseded by forms in -hood.

[ME -hede, OE *-haedu, f. of -had -HOOD]

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I

suffix equivalent to -hood

Origin:

Middle English -hed, -hede

II

comb. form

1) denoting the front, forward, or upper part or end of a specified thing

spearhead | masthead

2) in nouns used informally to express disparagement of a person

airhead | dumbhead

3) in nouns used informally to denote an addict or habitual user of a specified drug

crackhead

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-head 8 [-head] [hed] [hed] suffix (informal)

(in nouns) a person who is very enthusiastic about a particular thing or is addicted to a particular drug

•

The cybercafe was a nethead's dream.

•

a gearhead

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a crackhead

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a smackhead

•

a pothead

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-head, suffix

(hɛd)

later form of ME. hêde, hêd, found already in 12th c., but not known in OE., though pointing etymologically to an OE. *-hǽdu, -o (obl. cases -hǽde) fem., beside OE. -hád masc., corresp. to OHG. -heit masc. and fem.

This suffix was orig. an independent subst. (OTeut. *haidu-z masc. in Goth. haidus m., manner, way (see had n., hede), which, after coming to be used only in comb., was practically only a suffix of condition or quality. In its primary use, -hede appears to have been appropriate to adjs. as boldhede, biterhede, drunkenhede, fairhede, falshede, etc., but it was soon extended to ns., as in knyghthede, manhede, maydenhede, wommanhede (all in Chaucer), being thus used indiscriminately with -hôd (-hode, -hood) from OE. -hád. In Cursor M. fadirhede, faderhade, preistes hede, pristis hade, occur as MS. variants. This led the way finally to the obsolescence of -hede, -head, and the substitution, even in adjs., of -hood, as in mod. falsehood, likelihood, etc. One or two special forms in -head, e.g. godhead, maidenhead (distinguished from godhood, maidenhood), only remain. In Scotch, on the contrary, -hede, -heid, remained the current form, but is now more or less obsolescent. See also had n., hede n., and -hood.