"Adjectival" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... regard this statement as inaccurate. The -ous in these words does not come from the nominative ending -us, but is the ordinary -ous from L. -osus (through Fr.). It was added to many Latin adjective stems, because the need of a distinctly adjectival ending was felt. Similarly in early French -eux was appended to adjectives when they were felt to require a termination, as in pieux from pi-us. Compare the English capacious, veracious, hilarious, where -ous is added to other stems than those in o. Other suffixes of Latin origin ...
— Society for Pure English Tract 4 - The Pronunciation of English Words Derived from the Latin • John Sargeaunt
... also be short for Crispin, the etymology being the same in any case. Apps is sometimes for asp, the tree now called by the adjectival name aspen (cf. linden). We find Thomas atte apse in ...
— The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley
... She saw them wild, free, sovereign, and there were no greasy, berry-peddling Oneidas among them. They were Sioux, and Pottawatomies (that last had the real Indian sound), and Winnebagos, and Menomonees, and Outagamis. She made them taciturn, and beady-eyed, and lithe, and fleet, and every other adjectival thing her imagination and history book could supply. The fat and placid Capuchin Fathers on the hill became Jesuits, sinister, silent, powerful, with France and the Church of Rome behind them. From the shelter of that big oak would step Nicolet, the brave, first among Wisconsin ...
— Fanny Herself • Edna Ferber |
