-ous

-oussuff.1. Possessing; full of; characterized by: joyous.2. Having a valence lower than that of a specified element in compounds or ions named with adjectives ending in -ic: ferrous.[Middle English, from Old French -ous, -eus, -eux, from Latin -?sus and -us, adj. suff.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.-ous suffix forming adjectives 1. having, full of, or characterized by: dangerous; spacious; languorous. 2. (Chemistry) (in chemistry) indicating that an element is chemically combined in the lower of two possible valency states: ferrous; stannous. Compare -ic2 [from Old French, from Latin -?sus or -us, Greek -os, adj suffixes]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014-ous 1. a suffix forming adjectives that have the general sense ?possessing, full of? a given quality (covetous; glorious; nervous; wondrous); -ous and its variant -ious have often been used to Anglicize Latin adjectives with terminations that cannot be directly adapted into English (atrocious; contiguous; garrulous; obvious; stupendous). As an adjective-forming suffix of neutral value, it regularly Anglicizes Greek and Latin adjectives derived without suffix from nouns and verbs; many such formations are productive combining forms in English, sometimes with a corresponding nominal combining form that has no suffix; compare -fer, -ferous; -phore, -phorous. 2. a suffix forming adjectival correspondents to the names of chemical elements; specialized, in opposition to like adjectives ending in -ic, to mean the lower of two possible valences (stannous chloride, SnCl2, and stannic chloride, SnCl4). [Middle English

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