wordage

reesetee Lots of delayed cargo lately, yarb? Nov 21, 2008

yarb This week I've been thinking about demurrage. Nov 21, 2008

trivet How very illuminating. Thank you, my furry friends!

(Special thanks to the bear for all the citations...) Nov 20, 2008

chained_bear Ooh! *pilfers for own list* Nov 20, 2008

sionnach mmmm ... snausages

Checks to see if someone has taken umbrage yet. Nope, guess it's still there. Nov 20, 2008

bilby saxifrage, manurage, grattage, thanage, dumpage, eatage, hersage, bricolage, ramage, lactage, viduage, curettage, ambage, keelage, soccage, careenage, foggage, imposturage, lockage, panderage, rubbage. Nov 20, 2008

seanahan It seemed to work to make me cooler (relatively, of course) when I was 14, but I think that these days it wouldn't work. For words where the "age" suffix wouldn't work, we used "action". So instead of bondage, you'd have bond-action, or for barrage, barrage-action. Jan 21, 2008

trivet Thanks, y'all! Jan 17, 2008

skipvia Well, I tried it with my broker. I wanted to acquire some US Treasuries, so I asked her if she would be into a little bondage. She threw me out.

I guess I'm just not as cool as seanahan... Jan 17, 2008

sionnach It's a fine line; pile on too much wordage and suddenly you've crossed that threshold into bloviage. Where the toll for all that excess verbal baggage can cost you some serious coinage. Jan 17, 2008

skipvia Did it work, seanahan? Because I might want to try it to increase my, ummm, coolage. Jan 17, 2008

seanahan When I was around 14 my friends and I used to use -age as a suffix for just about everything, to denote coolness. Jan 17, 2008

sionnach gavage (not so nice if you're a rodent or a goose). Then there is the more specialized subset here:

XX-age Jan 17, 2008

trivet oooh, thank you! I'm glad I learned about the right to carry things where one will! Jan 16, 2008

asativum There's also lastage, a kind of transport fee. Jan 16, 2008

trivet Thanks, sionnach. And chained_bear, I don't know how I missed your OED delvings - I've always enjoyed -age for its ability to connotate stuff/ness and now I know why. Cool. Mar 20, 2007

sionnach persiflage, and the closely related badinage Mar 20, 2007

chained_bear I found an interesting usage note in the OED for the suffix "-age." Even though it isn't a suggestion, it seems like it might belong here. I humbly submit:

suffix of abstr. nouns, originally in words adopted from Fr., afterwards a living Eng. formative. (OFr. -age: late L. -ticum, a favourite termination of abstr. ns. of appurtenance, and collectives; orig. neuter of adjectives in -tic-us. Cf. cl. L. silv-ticus of the wood (silva), It. selv-aggio, Pr. salv-atge, Fr. sauv-age, Eng. sav-age, with viticus of or pertaining to a journey (via), viticum that which pertains to a journey, provision for the way, later the making of a journey, Pr. viatge, It. viaggio, Fr. viage, voyage; umbrticus of or pertaining to the shade, shady (umbra), late L. umbrticum that which is shady, shadiness, a mass of shade, Fr. ombrage, Eng. umbrage. Afterwards a common formative in Fr. itself, as in entour-age; thence readopted in med.L. as -gium: cf. homgium, carigium, formed on Fr. hommage, cariage, which if formed in L. would have been *hominticum, *carricticum.)

1. From names of things, indicating that which belongs to or is functionally related to... (e.g. language)
2. From names of persons, indicating function, sphere of action, condition, rank... (e.g. orphanage, vassalage)
3. From verbs expressing action... (e.g. damage, marriage)

Isn't that cool? I had no idea. What an awesome language we have. Mar 6, 2007

uselessness I told you they were wild. ;-) Mar 6, 2007

trivet Thanks for your wild suggestions, u, but I'm only listing -age suffixes. -rage, -phage, and -stage are for someone else to take on. And I just don't like marriage, etc - too average, I guess. Mar 6, 2007

uselessness Well then, how about frontage, anchorage, and storage? If you really are at all interested in walking on the wild side (though apparantly marriage and average are too wild?) perhaps you might consider backstage, xylophage, and enrage? Mar 6, 2007

trivet Thanks! I hadn't realized just how many -age words there are. I'll take any and all that I like, however strange, but reserve the right to exclude average, advantage, percentage and the like - just cause I don't like the way they look. Mar 6, 2007

chained_bear orphanage, parsonage, porterage? Message, passage, pilgrimage, postage? Advantage, equipage?

I found a number of very weird and probably obsolete terms, if you're interested.

Also I noticed you have wreakage but not wreckage. Mar 6, 2007

chained_bear Hey. I take umbrage at that. (Not really, and also I know it's already on your list. But how often does one get to use the word umbrage anyway? You can't blame me for grabbing the opportunity.)

You do have verbiage and foliage as well, even though you've declined carriage and marriage. Hmm... how about potage, tonnage, voyage, plumage? Mar 6, 2007

uselessness In a similar statistical vein, how about percentage? Mar 6, 2007

sionnach umbrage, spillage, frottage, spoilage, foliage, greengage, collage :}

and how could I, as a statistician, forget average Mar 6, 2007

valse vintage, lineage, rampage. I have to suggest, though I wouldn't blame you for not accepting it: pwnage Mar 6, 2007

abraxaszugzwang well, if you don't like marriage, how about mirage? Mar 6, 2007

trivet So many wordsies! Thank you all. C-b, I do have something against marriage - I just don't like the -riage (except maybe for triage). Also, I'm going for polysyllabic and stuff-related rather than time-related -ages. Mar 6, 2007

chained_bear Do we have something against marriage? Mar 6, 2007

valse package, footage, stockage, underage, overage, coverage...oo, and pillage Mar 6, 2007

reesetee portage, carriage Mar 6, 2007

abraxaszugzwang suffrage, outrage, page, rage, cage, sage (do you want those itsy bitsy ones?) Hmmm, Power outage? seepage (gross), luggage, cabbage, ravage Mar 6, 2007

abraxaszugzwang Two from my list: shrinkage and vagabondage.
then, of course, there's just regular bondage. And baggage. Mar 6, 2007