loquaciousLinguist

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Why are things "infectious" but not "infectionate", but you can be "affectionate" but not "affectious"?

It's all about the roots, my man. 'Infect' is derived from the Latin word 'infectus' which is the past participle of 'inficere' meaning to stain, to dye. In contrast, 'affectionate' comes from 'affectio', from 'afficere', to influence. A different verb ending (-io instead of -us) gives us the '-ate' suffix. …
submitted 1 year, 3 months ago by loquaciousLinguist