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The suffix ''-lock'' in Modern English survives only in ''wedlock''. It descends from Old English ''-lác'' which was more productive, carrying a meaning of "action or proceeding, state of being, practice, ritual". As a noun, Old English ''lác'' means "play, sport", deriving from an earlier meaning of "sacrificial ritual or hymn" (Proto-Germanic '' *laikaz''). A putative term for a "hymn to the gods" ('' *ansu-laikaz'') in early Germanic paganism is attested only as a personal name, Oslac. ==Suffix== The Old English nouns in ''-lác'' include ''brýdlác'' "nuptials", ''beadolác'', ''feohtlác'' and ''heaðolác'' "warfare", ''hǽmedlác'' and ''wiflác'' "carnal intercourse", ''réaflác'' "robbery", ''wítelác'' "punishment", ''wróhtlác'' "calumny" besides the ''wedlác'' "pledge-giving", also "nuptials" ancestral to ''wedlock''. A few compounds appear only in Middle English, thus ''dweomerlak'' "occult practice", ''ferlac'' "terror", ''shendlac'' "disgrace", ''treulac'' "faithfulness", ''wohlac'' "wooing", all of them extinct by the onset of Early Modern English. The earliest words taking the ''-lác'' suffix were probably related to warfare, comparable to the ''-pleȝa'' (-play) suffix found in ''swordplay''. The Old Norse counterpart is ''-leikr'', loaned into North Midlands Middle English as ''-laik'', in the Ormulum appearing as ''-leȝȝe''. The suffix came to be used synonymously with ''-nesse'', forming abstract nouns, e.g. ''clænleȝȝe'' "cleanness". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「-lock」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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