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Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-our

Forming nouns.

[Derived from various sources.]

For the most part, words in -our are variants of those in -or (see -or1 and -or2). However, there are some that derive from a variety of other sources, such as endeavour (late Middle English, in the sense ‘exert oneself’; from the phrase put oneself in devoir, do one's utmost), harbour (Old English herebeorg, shelter, refuge), neighbour (Old English, from nēah, near, plus gebūr, inhabitant, peasant, farmer), and parlour (Anglo-Norman French parlur, place for speaking, from Latin parlare, speak). All these are usually written -or in American English.

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