Doctrinaire

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>The results of my searches give me only two adjectives in English that end
>in -aire. Doctrinaire and debonnaire/debonaire (which doesn't HAVE to end
>in -aire).
>
>Are there more I am missing? And why do those two keep the -aire, when most
>others switch to -ary?

I think "doctrinaire" is the odd one (along with derivatives such as
"nondoctrinaire" etc., of course).

The excuse for "debonair[e]" is perhaps the same as that for
"laissez-faire"/"laisser-faire": these adjectives are from phrases ending
in noun "air[e]" and verb "faire" respectively, not from the usual suffix
"-aire" = "-ary". If this excuse does not suffice, perhaps the lack of a
Latin cognate "debonarius" or so might have played a role; but I believe
that when "debonair[e]" was adopted the etymology from "de bon[ne] air[e]"
probably was obvious (and in this case -- coincidentally -- apparently also
true).

In English, "extraordinaire" (like the marginal cases "[vin] ordinaire",
"[cordon] sanitaire") is not a fully naturalized word: it follows its noun
and generally continues to put on French aires: using this word is
tantamount to pretending to speak French.

So why is "doctrinaire" odd among adjectives? My naive guess is that it's
because the word was first adopted as a noun, and late. There are several
such nouns, mostly adopted ca. 1800 or later: "concessionaire",
"commissionaire", "legionnaire", "secretaire", "millionaire", etc. Earlier
nouns with this French suffix "-aire" (Latin "-arius" I guess) were
naturalized to English "-ary" generally; I suppose after ca. 1800 it was no
longer fashionable to alter them so. I suppose "doctrinaire" is the only
one of these adopted nouns which became conventional as an English
adjective. Adjectives in "-aire" which are adopted as adjectives have
always generally become "-ary", I think.

Maybe some of the experts can add something, or correct me.

-- Doug Wilson