suffix of adjs.; occasional ad. L. -ār-is (stem -āri) ‘of the kind of, belonging to.’ Of this the regular repr. in mod. Eng. is -AR1, q.v. But even in Latin several of these words had forms both in -āris and -ārius; and in later Fr. words of literary introduction, both these L. endings are levelled under -aire, e.g., L. contrārius, mīlitāris, Fr. contraire, militaire. Hence, as Fr. -aire from -ārius gives -ary in Eng., Fr. -aire from -āris has occasionally also been adapted as -ary instead of the more regular -ar; e.g., capillary, exemplary, maxillary, military, salutary.
