-euse

1. a suffix occurring in loanwords from French, forming feminine nouns corresponding to nouns ending in -eur: chanteuse.

Word History and Origins

Origin of -euse¹

< French < Latin -ōsa, feminine of -ōsus -ose ¹ (> French -eux ); taken as feminine of -eur when this suffix had lost its final consonant (later restored) and was homonymous with -eux (hence, masculine -eu ( r ), feminine -euse, by analogy with -eux, -euse )

Words That Use -Euse

What does -euse mean?

The form -euse is a suffix that marks an agent noun or, occasionally, an adjective in loanwords from French. Agent nouns are nouns that indicate a person who does an action. Broadly speaking then, -euse means “doer.” The suffix -euse is relatively common in both everyday and technical terms.

The suffix -euse comes from the Latin -ōsa, which was used to indicate agent nouns whose grammatical gender was female.

The suffix -euse is the feminine-gendered variant of -eur. Although -eur is a masculine-gendered ending for agent nouns, it is often (though not always) preferred over -euse as the default in English, regardless of the subject’s gender. Some words that end with -euse, such as danseuse, are still reserved (though not without due criticism) for women.

Want to know more? Read our Words That Use -eur article.

Examples of -euse

One example of a term you may be familiar with that features -euse is chanteuse, “a female singer, especially one who sings in nightclubs and cabarets.”

The first part of the word, chant-, comes from the French chanter, meaning “to sing.” The suffix -euse means “doer” and specifies that the doer in question is female. Chanteuse roughly translates to “someone (female) who sings.”

What are some words that use the suffix -euse?

The following words are all French loanwords and therefore use the equivalent form of -euse in French.

• berceuse
• coiffeuse
• danseuse
• diseuse
• masseuse
• vendeuse

What are some other forms that -euse may be commonly confused with?

• -ese
• -eum

Not every word that ends with the exact letters -euse uses the suffix -eur to indicate a “doer.” Non-agent nouns with similar endings include chartreuse. Learn why chartreuse denotes a distinguished yellowish-green color at our entry for the word.

Break it down!

The French verb danser means, as you may guess, “to dance.” With this in mind, what is a danseuse?