Etymology

-ary

Today it means: Of or pertaining to. Adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to produce an adjective form. Often added to words of Latin origin, but used with other words also. Full definition →

Middle English -arie
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited from-arie
  2. English today-ary

Inherited from Middle English -arie, a back-formation from Latin and French-borrowed adjectives ending respectively in -ārius and -aire (more rarely from Latin adjectives in -āris: see exemplary and lapidary). Doublet of -ar, -eer, -ier, and -yer; see also the related -arian.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.