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There is, but it's remote. In much older English (the 1600s), to suffer someone to do something is to allow him to do it, to not hinder him. (You can see how my suffering someone to do something that I would normally prohibit can lead to my suffering in the modern sense.) So in the late 1800s, when the issue of allowing women to vote came to a head in this country (and also in England, I believe, at about the same time), the issue came to be called "women's suffrage". Nowadays if we talk about "suffrage" that's what we mean.
Political controversy often changes the meaning of words in that way. "Abortion" used to mean cutting something short, stopping it before it reached completion; nowadays it's almost impossible to use the word in a general sense, because it's used almost exclusively about aborting pregnancies. The same with "pollution", "adultery", "exploitation" and a number of other words. Alas.
Good point about abortion, Bob. I mean, we still use abort when talking about computer processes, rocket launches, airplane take-offs, and the like. But if I had to use the noun form of the verb abort, I'd probably write/say something equivalent like termination or cancellation. There's just too much emotional and political baggage attached to the word abortion. I wouldn't say the meaning of the word has changed, but its usage sure has.
And that was a great explanation of suffrage. Never really thought about its etymology, but your answer makes sense to me.
Really?! I thought about looking it up before posting my reply, but it was just so obvious. Ok, now let's see what the OED says... Well, that's just weird: I wasn't off, I was just flat wrong.
suffer: early 13c., "to be made to undergo, endure" (pain, death, punishment, judgment, grief), from Anglo-Fr. suffrir, from O.Fr. sufrir, from V.L. *sufferire, variant of L. sufferre "to bear, undergo, endure, carry or put under," from sub "up, under" (see sub-) + ferre "to carry" (see infer). Replaced O.E. þolian, þrowian. Meaning "to meekly submit to hardship" is from late 13c. That of "to undergo" (distress, suffering, etc.) is mid-14c. Meaning "to tolerate, allow" something to occur or continue is recorded from mid-13c. Related: Suffered; suffering.
suffrage: late 14c., "prayers or pleas on behalf of another," from O.Fr. suffrage (13c.), from M.L. suffragium, from L. suffragium "support, vote, right of voting," from suffragari "lend support, vote for someone," from sub "under" (see sub-) + fragor "crash, din, shouts (as of approval)," related to frangere "to break" (see fraction). The meaning "right to vote" is first found in the U.S. Constitution, 1787.
So they look alike, and my etymology was reasonable, explanatory, obvious, clear, perhaps even witty. It had, in fact (as a favorite author once wrote in another subject) every amiable quality except that of being true.
Well, nuts. But I do love surprises of that sort. Who'd'a thunk it?
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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