-'s, is the present genitive suffix. [Short for A.S. -es—Aryan -s or sya, orig. a demons. pron. The (') is prob. due to a false notion that this -s was a relic of his.]
-s, -se, verbal suffix, making transitive verbs from adjectives, as cleanse (A.S. clǽnsian), rinse (Ice. hreinsa—hreinn, pure). It also occurs in clasp, grasp, put for clap-s, grap-s.
-ship, -scape, noun suffix, as friendship, stewardship, worship, landscape (earlier landskip, the Dut. landschap). [A.S. scipe, shape, form—scapan; cog. with Ger. -schaft.]
-sis, action or state, as thesis. [Gr.]
-some, adj. suffix, full of, as gladsome, buxom (orig. 'pliable,' 'good-natured,' A.S. búhsum, lissome, from búgan, to bow, bend). [A.S. -sum, Ger. -sam; a by-form of same.]
-son, son, as Johnson.
-son, in arson, reason, treason, the same as -tion (q.v.).
-st. See -est, suffix of 2d sing.
-ster marks the agent, as maltster, and in the personal names (orig. trade-names) Baxter, Brewster, Webster; often with depreciation, as gamester, punster. [A.S. -estre, a fem. suffix, which now keeps this sense only in spinster.]
-stress, fem. suffix, as songstress. [From -ster, orig. fem. suffix, with the addition of L. -ess.]