Is this really an English suffix? Seems to me that this is a Latin suffix, and we've inherited a lot of Latin words. This does not make it an English suffix. I rooted through the Derived terms, and removed all the words which I could determine to have definitely acquired the Latin suffix -um. The rest I could not find evidence on either way, and so they have been left. However, I feel fairly confident that they should go the way of their kin. Can anyone demonstrate this to be a productive English suffix? Atelaes 04:41, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
- The only potential candidates I can think of are fictional elements ending in -ium that show up in science fiction works. However, I'd say that those are formed from -ium rather then -um. --EncycloPetey 05:55, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
- Yeah, I can't think of any examples of productivity in English. Dump it, I reckon. Widsith 09:33, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
- Keep. Even if it only survives in Latin borrowings (which strikes me as unlikely — surely there exist dog-Latinisms in -um, and Greek terms in -on that have been borrowed directly into English using Latin -um, and so on), it's worth having this entry for etymology, inflection information, and usage notes. —RuakhTALK 16:05, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
- Note that we are currently lacking the pseudo-aerican-Indian use of this suffix (talkum, makeum, thinkum), found in [1] and regrettably many other sources. -- Visviva 17:18, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
- Keep Many varieties of historical usage. My favorite bunkum. Or is there another ety? Also, I wouldn't have thought that it was important to us whether of not it was currently productive. If it has ever been productive in English, wouldn't it deserve an English language entry? If a 19th C. Englishman coined a Latinate term, used in an English sentence, with a non-Latin root and an -um ending, wouldn't we consider that to have been a productive use in English? DCDuring TALK 17:59, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
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- That etymology on bunkum was bunkum. It has been corrected. This is not RFD, it is RFV. So, if someone can find three cites, it passes. Find three instances where -um was appended in English. Mind you, there would be nothing wrong with having a Latin section at this entry, which would indeed be useful for etymologies and such. Atelaes 20:00, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
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- I've been to Buncombe County (Asheville, NC). I thought that that was folk etymology put out by the Chamber of Commerce, but I see that my MW3 bought off on it. Along the same lines how about noseeum or no-see-um? (It seems kind of dumb not to be able to search for a word ending. regular expressions, anyone?) I'll keep looking. DCDuring TALK 20:50, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
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- Obviously the Latin entry would be useful anyway and would capture the spirit of much of the kind of use we are discussing, except possibly for application of the suffix to non-Latin/non-Greek stems.
- As examples of the kind of formations that might fit the bill for the English entry (if only I had some dates and languages for first use) are conundrum (probably a jesting formation by English students, 18th C.), abandum, abandonum, abatamentum (legal Latin). Perhaps there are similar formations in the medical field (or other professions or academic disciplines) that became English words, at least for a time. The formations I have in mind are very likely to appear on a list of words that classicists find outrageous, annoying, and/or bogus. They might be (erroneously?) classifed as Late Latin. DCDuring TALK 21:24, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
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