A suffix forming nouns that denote the result or means of an action, or a state or condition.
From Latin '-mentum', a neuter noun-forming suffix. It attached to verb stems to create nouns indicating instruments, results, or states of being, borrowed into English through Old French.
This tiny suffix is incredibly productive in English - it appears in hundreds of words like 'movement', 'treatment', and 'amazement'. It's so embedded in our language that we often add it to create new words on the spot, like 'empowerment' (coined in the 1960s)!
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