-les

See also: Appendix:Variations of "les"

Middle English

Alternative forms

• -las, -lasse, -læs, -leas, -lease, -leæs, -lese, -lesse, -lez, -lies, -liese, -lis, -lise, -lyas, -lyese

Etymology

Inherited from Old English -lēas (“-less”) (akin to lēas (“devoid of, loose from, false”)), from Proto-West Germanic *-laus, from Proto-Germanic *-lausaz, from *lausaz (“loose”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /-lɛːs/, /-lɛs/

Suffix

-les

1. Lacking (something); without (something).

Derived terms

Middle English terms suffixed with -les

Derived terms

• armles
• berdles
• bonles
• catelles
• causeles
• childrenles
• cloudeles
• comfortles
• defautles
• drinkeles
• fereles
• fleshles
• frounceless
• goodles
• groundles
• harmles
• havenles
• herteles
• husbondles
• orles
• sinneles
• wifles
• witles

Descendants

• English: -less
• Scots: -less

Usage notes

• -les and its variants are affixed to nouns in order to form adjectives denoting absence of that noun.

References

• “-lē̆s, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 6 April 2018.