Etymology

-ish

Today it means: Typical of, similar to, being like. Full definition →

Middle English -isch ← Old English -isċ ← Proto-West Germanic *-isk
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-ish · suffix1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*-iskos
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-iskaz“-ish”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*-isk
  4. Old English · inherited from-isċ“-ish”
  5. Middle English · inherited from-isch
  6. English today-ish

From Middle English -isch, -issh, from Old English -isċ (“-ish”, suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-isk, from Proto-Germanic *-iskaz (“-ish”), from Proto-Indo-European *-iskos. Cognate with Dutch -s; German -isch (whence Dutch -isch); Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish -isk or -sk; Lithuanian -iškas; Russian -ский (-skij); and the Ancient Greek diminutive suffix -ίσκος (-ískos). Doublet of -esque and -ski.

-ish · suffix2

  1. Latin · derived from-ēscere
  2. Old French · derived from-iss-
  3. Middle English · inherited from-ishen
  4. English today-ish

From Middle English -ishen, -ischen, -issen, from Old French -iss-, -is- (a termination of the stem of some forms [present participle, etc.] of certain verbs), from Latin -ēscere, -īscere (an inchoative suffix), the formative -esc-, -isc- (-sc-, Greek -σκ- (-sk-)) being ultimately cognate with English -ish (Etymology 1). See -esce, -escent, etc.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.