American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

[Middle English, from Old English -isc .]

4. Tending toward; preoccupied with: selfish.

b. Having the usually undesirable qualities of: childish.

1. Of, relating to, or being: Swedish.

[Old English -isc; related to German -isch, Greek -iskos ]

4. concerned or preoccupied with: bookish .

2. often derogatory having the manner or qualities of; resembling: slavish ; prudish ; boyish .

1. of or belonging to a nationality or group: Scottish .

-ish1

1. a suffix forming adjectives from nouns, with the meanings “pertaining to” (British; Spanish); “after the manner of,” “having the characteristics of,” “like” (babyish; girlish; mulish); “addicted to,” “inclined or tending to” (bookish; freakish); “near or about” (fiftyish; sevenish).

2. a suffix forming adjectives from other adjectives, with the meanings “somewhat,” “rather” (oldish; reddish; sweetish).

-isc; c. Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High German -isc, Gothic -isks, Greek -iskos; akin to [Middle English; Old Englishc. Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High GermanGothicGreekakin to -esque

-ish2

a formative occurring in verbs borrowed from French ( nourish; perish ), used rarely to form verbs in English from Latin bases ( extinguish ).

[< French -iss-, extended s. of verbs with infinitives in -ir « Latin -isc-, in inceptive verbs]

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