Econometrics

The thirty-ninth entry is le test de robustesse, and the ending on that second noun hides two suffixes wearing one spelling. The first comes from the Latin -itia, which built an abstract noun out of an adjective, and it gave French a shelf of them: la robustesse, la faiblesse, la justesse, la finesse, la souplesse, la richesse. The second comes from the late Latin -issa, taken in from Greek, which built a feminine out of a masculine, and it gave la princesse, la maîtresse, l’hôtesse, la duchesse. Nothing in the spelling separates them, so a reader decides from the word underneath. English never faces that choice, because it carries the pair in two shapes. For the quality it uses « -ness », which is not Latin at all but the native Germanic ending of « robustness », « weakness » and « richness ». For the female it uses « -ess », and that one is the French ending itself, borrowed whole in « princess », « hostess » and « duchess ». So the ending that looks French is the French one, and it is not the one this page needs.