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Fri 3 Jun, 2016 10:16 am
Hi! What do you think is the core meaning of "-hood" as in falsehood, neighborhood, childhood, brotherhood, priesthood, likelihood, etc? I know these are all nouns, meaning that hood makes a word a noun. I thought hood also suggests things "in general" or "as a whole" or maybe as a "group."
It's from the Old English had meaning "condition, order, rank." In Standard English it has two meanings; the first is close to the original and indicates condition, state, quality, etc. (e.g. falsehood, likelihood, etc.). The second meaning refers to a group sharing a specified condition, state or quality/a body of persons (e.g. neighborhood, childhood, priesthood, etc.).
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