English

-i

/iː/
Used to form adjectives, nouns, demonyms (describing people of a particular city, region or country) or genonyms (describing people of a particular tribe, clan or family) and the language spoken by these people.

    Etymology graph

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    • borrowed
    • derived
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    A conflation of the following suffixes:

    * For Semitic-speaking places, from the Arabic ـِيّ (-iyy) (nisba suffix) and from Hebrew ־י (-i), both sharing a common Semitic root.

    * For Indo-Iranian-speaking places, from Persian ـی (-ī) and Hindustani Hindi -ई (-ī) / Urdu ـی (-ī).

    In English, productive since the 19th century.

    Etymology 2

    From Latin -ī (nominative plural).

    Etymology 3

    From Italian -i (masculine plural), from Latin -ī (see etymology 2).

    Etymology 4

    Variant of -ie or -y.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • borrowedArabicـِيّ
    • borrowedHebrew־י
    • borrowedPersianـی
      • inheritedMiddle Persianyḥ
      • inheritedMiddle Persianig
    • borrowedHindi-ई
      • inheritedPrakrit-𑀇𑀅
        • inheritedSanskrit-इक
        • inheritedSanskrit-ईय
      • derivedClassical Persianـِی
      • inheritedPrakrit-𑀇𑀬𑀸
        • inheritedSanskrit-इका
      • derivedSanskrit-ई
      • derivedSanskrit-इन्
        • inheritedProto-Indo-Iranian*-in-
    • borrowedUrduـی
    • borrowedLatin-ī
    • borrowedItalian-i

    Sources