a. In sbs. = -ATE1, as in (i) COUNTY1, OF. counte, F. comté, L. comitātus, f. comit-, comes count, DUCHY, F. duché, L. ducātus, f. duc-, dux duke, TREATY, F. traité, L. tractātus, f, tractāre to treat, (ii) ARMY, F. armée, Romanic *armāta armed force, f. armāre to arm, DELIVERY, AF. delivree, ppl. sb. f. delivrer to deliver, ENTRY, F. entrée, Romanic *intrāta, f. intrāre to enter.
This suffix is represented under other forms in certain words, e.g., assignee, committee, refugee (F. assigné, comité, refugié), attorney (OF. atorné), alley, journey, valley (F. allée, journée, vallée).
b. In adjs. = -ATE2, as in easy, OF. aisié (F. aisé), f. aisier to ease. There are few general adjs. of this kind, but there is a considerable number of heraldic descriptive terms having this termination, the earliest example of which is jerownde (14th cent.), gerundi (1486), GYRONNY, a. OF. geroné, gironné, f. giron GYRON. Early adoptions of this class have the ending -e, later -ee, and (as early as the Book of St. Albans, 1486) often -i, later -y. With some, -y has become the regular form, as barry, bendy, fretty, fusilly, gyronny, lozengy, nowy, paly adj.2, sarcelly; others are found commonly with either -é, -ée, -ee, or -y, as botoné(e, -y, checky, chequee, nébulé, -y, tenné, -y, undé(e, undy; others, of more modern introduction, usually retain the French spelling, as coupé, dancetté(e (cf. † dancy), écartelé, renversé, semée; some have been anglicized with the native ppl. suffix, either temporarily or permanently, as † besantid (= bezanty), escarteled, paled ppl. adj.1, resarcelled, sarcelled. In wavy (after undy) we have a rare instance of an analogical use of the suffix with a sb. of native origin.
