Stick to Business, Pozhalsta

[Mark A Mandel]

On Mon, 29 Jul 2002, James A. Landau wrote:

#In a message dated 07/29/2002 12:55:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
#mam at THEWORLD.COM writes:
#
#> Is there a non-productive suffix "-ma", or even a number of words that
#>  happen to end in "-ma" with no common synchronic or diachronic origin?
#>  ISTM, albeit without examining the matter in a scholarly way, that folk
#>  etymology is willing to seize on even a chance resemblance in form, so
#>  this lack, circumscribed as it is in this description, means little.
#
#You're putting Descartes before de horse.  By definition, a folk etymology is
#one that seizes on a chance resemblance in form, e.g. "Jerusalem artichoke"
#from "girasole".

Don't saddle me with that! I was responding to an argument that seemed
to ignore that fact by specifically saying there was no *productive*
suffix.

-- Mark A. Mandel