desinence
Americannoun
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a termination or ending, as the final line of a verse.
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Grammar. a termination, ending, or suffix of a word.
noun
Other Word Forms
- desinent adjective
- desinential adjective
Etymology
Origin of desinence
1590–1600; < French < Medieval Latin dēsinentia, equivalent to Latin dēsinent- (stem of dēsinēns ), present participle of dēsinere to put down, leave ( dē- de- + sinere to leave) + -ia -ia; -ence
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Coming to baptism, we find scarcely a single name of any pretensions to popularity that did not take to itself this desinence.
From Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature by Bardsley, Charles W.
There are not verses only, but whole poems, in which each line terminates with the same desinence.
From Basque Legends With an Essay on the Basque Language by Webster, Wentworth
Richelot for Richard, Hobelot and Robelot for Robert, Crestolot for Christopher, Cesselot for Cecilia, and Barbelot for Barbara, are found also, and prove that the desinence had made its mark.
From Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature by Bardsley, Charles W.
The extreme facility with which the language lends itself to rhyming desinence has a most injurious effect upon versification.
From Basque Legends With an Essay on the Basque Language by Webster, Wentworth
Conservation must, therefore, be the rule, and desinence the impossible exception.
From Life: Its True Genesis by Wright, R. W.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
