A formative of sbs. a. from verbs, going back to OTeut., and answering variously to the Indo-Eur. suffixes -tos, -tā, -tis, -tus, the t of which remained in Teutonic, when preceded by a guttural, labial, or s; e.g., draught, drift, flight, frost, gift, heft, night, plight, shaft, shrift, slaught, thirst, thought, thrift, weft, etc. (in some of which the formation is later and imitative). In a few cases the t is a later Eng. change of -þ after h, ȝ, as in sight (OE. siehþ), in which normally represented Indo-Eur. t. See -TH.
b. from adjs. (or sbs.), changed from earlier -þ, -th (in length, etc.) after h, ȝ, as height (Goth. hauhiþa, OE. híehþo, ME. heiȝþe, highth); sleight (ON. slægþ, ME. sleiȝþe); theft (OE. þiefþ, ME. þiefþe); dreight (for dreighth, from dreiȝ, DREE): here the suffix was OTeut. -iþô: -iðô: Indo-Eur. -tā. See -TH. Also dought (OE. duȝuþ:—*dugunþ), drought (OE. drûȝuþ, Sc. drouth), where the OE. suffix -up was for -unþ:—Indo-Eur. -ntis.
