-ery Definition

Origin of -ery

• The suffix first occurs in loans from Old French into Middle English, but becomes productive within English by the 16th century, in some instances properly a combination of -er with -y as in bakery, brewery, but also as a single suffix in terms like slavery, machinery.

  From Wiktionary

• Middle English -erie from Old French -er agent suff. (partly from -ier –er¹) (and partly from -ere, -eor –or¹) -ie noun suff. –y²

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

• ME -erie < OFr -erie < LL -aria, or by addition of -ie (L -ia) to OFr nouns of agency in -ier

  From Webster's New World College Dictionary, 5th Edition

• From Anglo-Norman and Old French -erie, a suffix forming abstract nouns.

  From Wiktionary