Etymology

-ious

Latin -ōsus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed from-ius
  2. Latin · borrowed from-us
  3. Latin · borrowed from-ōsus
  4. Latin · borrowed from-ius
  5. Latin · borrowed from-us
  6. Latin · borrowed from-ōsus
  7. English today-ious

Taken from Latin adjectives ending in -(i)ōsus (ambitious), -(i)us (obvious) and -ius (nefarious), as well as their Romance descendants. By surface analysis, -i- + -ous.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.