Etymology

-an

Today it means: Of or pertaining to; an adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. (Often added to words of Latin origin, but also used with words of other origins. When a word ends in a, -n is used instead.) Full definition →

Middle English -an ← Old French -ain ← Latin -ānus
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*-nós
  2. Latin · derived from-ānus
  3. Old French · derived from-ain
  4. Middle English · inherited from-an
  5. English today-an

From Middle English -an, regularly -ain, -ein, -en, from Old French -ain, -ein, or before i, -en (modern French -ain, -en, feminine -aine, -enne), from Latin -ānus (feminine -āna), which forms adjectives of belonging or origin from a noun, being -nus [cognate with Ancient Greek -νος (-nos)] preceded by a vowel, from Proto-Indo-European *-nós. Cognate with English -en. Compare with -in, -ine.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.