English

-al

/əl/
Of or pertaining to. Adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to produce an adjective form. Often added to words of Latin origin, but used with other words also.

    Etymology graph

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    • derived
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English -al, from the Latin adjective suffix -ālis, or French, Middle French and Old French -el, -al. Distant doublet of -ar.

    Etymology 2

    Clipping of aldehyde.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle English-al
      • borrowedOld French-al
      • borrowedOld French-el
        • inheritedLatin-ellus
        • derivedLatin-ellus
      • borrowedLatin-ālis “-al”
        • inheritedProto-Italic*-ālis
        • derivedProto-Indo-European*-li-
    • derivedEnglishaldehyde “Any of a large class of reactive organic compounds (R·CHO) having a carbonyl functional group attac…”
      • borrowedGermanAldehyd
        • derivedLatinalcohol
        • derivedLatindē- “of; from”
        • derivedAncient Greekὑδρο- “water”

    Related: English -ar (doublet)

    Words built on it: several, national, political, original, mental

    Sources