-erei
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Middle High German -erīe, from Old French -erie. The suffix first became productive in German to designate workshops pertaining to occupation names ending in -er, such as Bäckerei (“bakery”) from Bäcker (“baker”). These cases are more properly analyzed as derivations in -ei from the occupation name. Later on, -erei began to be freely attached to verb stems, autonomously from agent nouns. Compare e.g. Bäckerei above with Backerei (“baking”) derived directly from backen (“to bake”). Similar developments took place in Dutch -erij and, to a lesser degree, English -ery.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-erei f (genitive -erei, plural (rare) -ereien)
- Used to form verbal nouns, which often have an informal, frequentative and/or negative overtone.
Usage notes
- This suffix is of virtually unlimited productivity in colloquial German.
- Verbs whose stems end in -er or -el use the simple suffix -ei instead:
- quengeln (“to whine”) — Quengelei (“whining”)
Derived terms
See also
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