Etymology

-s-

Today it means: Genitival interfix used to link elements in some compounds, equivalent to the possessive clitic -'s. Full definition →

Middle English -s, -es ← Old English -es
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited from-es“-'s”
  2. Middle English · inherited from-s, -es
  3. English today-s-

From Middle English -s, -es, from Old English -es (“-'s”, masculine and neuter genitive singular ending), which survives in many old compounds. In more recent coinage, from contraction of the derived clitic -'s in compounds. For more, see -'s.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.