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-a

suffix
/ɑ/US/ə/US

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek -α (-a, nominative second declension neuter plural suffix), plural counterpart to -ον (-on, nominative second declension neuter singular suffix).

  1. derived from -a
  2. borrowed from -a
  3. borrowed from -a
  4. borrowed from -a

Definitions

  1. plural of -um

  2. plural of -on

  3. Marks singular nouns, with a foundation in Greek or Latin, often implying femininity,…

    Marks singular nouns, with a foundation in Greek or Latin, often implying femininity, especially when contrasted with words terminating in -us.

  4. ›+ 9 more definitions

    1. Changes an element or substance into an oxide.

      • magnesium + -a → magnesia

    2. Marks nouns, with a foundation in Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, implying femininity.

      • donna
      • signora

    3. Added for metrical reasons to songs, poetry and verse, or as an empty filler syllable to…

      Added for metrical reasons to songs, poetry and verse, or as an empty filler syllable to other speech.

      • A merry heart goes all the day Your sad tires in a mile-a
      • I love to sing-a / about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a, / I love to sing-a / about a sky of blue-a, or a tea for two-a.

    4. Alternative form of 've.

      • who'da thunk it?
      • shoulda
      • coulda

    5. Clitic form of o' (contraction of of).

      • buncha, cuppa, kinda, loadsa, lotta, sorta
      • "Jesus Christ! Was my folks refined. My mam she wouldn't think-a lettin' us young'uns call a pee pot a pee pot. A chamber's what she called it... And by God! Us young'uns had ter call the pee pot a chamber or git our God damn necks wrang."

    6. to (infinitive marker)

      • oughta
      • wanna
      • gotta

    7. do (infinitive marker)

      • whatta
      • Yeah, Flav, I'm tired of them dissing brothers in the P.E. out there, we got to do something about this/(What-a we do? What-a we do?)

    8. Pronunciation spelling of -er (the agent noun suffix).

      • busta, hustla, killa, stunna, sucka

    9. Pronunciation spelling of -er (the colloquial clipping suffix).

      • Macca, rugga

The neighborhood

Derived

incuba

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for -a. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA