-esce

American  

1. a suffix appearing in verbs borrowed from Latin, where it had an inchoative meaning.

   convalesce; putresce.

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Usage

What does -esce mean? The suffix -esce is used to denote verbs that refer to beginning, in the sense of "having become" or "begin to be." It is occasionally used in everyday and technical terms. The form -esce comes from the Latin verbal suffix -ēscere, which is an inchoative (also known as inceptive) element meaning “to become, begin to be.” There are two equivalents of -ēscere in English: -en, as in darken and strengthen, and -fy or -ify, as in liquefy or simplify. What are variants of -esce?While -esce doesn't have any variants, it is related to the forms -escence in nouns and -escent in adjectives. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles about -escence and -escent.

Etymology

Origin of -esce

From the Latin suffix -ēscere