|
|
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 1
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 1 |
i came across the word "resiliency" in a sports column and wondered: "What happened to resilience?" which means the same? Then it occurred to me there is a group of abstract nouns formed from adjectives that follow the same pattern. Constance/constancy. Hesitance/hesitancy. Dependence/dependency. And so on. (But not independence/independency.) What is going on here? Why the duplication?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706 |
Maybe its just personal choice....
Good observation though.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,180 Likes: 4
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,180 Likes: 4 |
But they're not always interchangeable: "His excellence and constancy are an example to us all." "His Excellency and Constance are an example to us all." Then there's emergence/emergency...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I hope you're not expecting consistency from language, nor consistence neither.
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,330
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
1,577
guests, and
1
robot. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
|