OE. -ede = OS. -ôdi (not represented elsewhere in Teut., though ON. had adjs. similarly f. sbs., with ppl. form and i- umlaut, as eygðr eyed, hynrdr horned):—OTeut. type -ôđjo-, is appended to sbs. in order to form adjs. connoting the possession or the presence of the attribute or thing expressed by the sb. The function of the suffix is thus identical with that of the Lat. ppl. suffix -tus as used in caudātus tailed, aurītus eared, etc.; and it is possible that the Teut. -ôđjo- may originally have been f. -ôđo- (see -ED1), the suffix of pa. pples. of vbs. in -ôjan formed upon sbs. In mod.Eng., and even in ME., the form affords no means of distinguishing between the genuine examples of this suffix and those ppl. adjs. in -ED1 which are ultimately f. sbs. through unrecorded vbs. Examples that have come down from OE. are ringed:—OE. hringede, hooked:—OE. hócede, etc. The suffix is now added without restriction to any sb. from which it is desired to form an adj. with the sense ‘possessing, provided with, characterized by’ (something); e.g., in toothed, booted, wooded, moneyed, cultured, diseased, jaundiced, etc., and in parasynthetic derivatives, as dark-eyed, seven-hilled, leather-aproned, etc. In bigoted, crabbed, dogged, the suffix has a vaguer meaning. (Groundless objections have been made to the use of such words by writers ignorant of the history of the language: see quot.) In pronunciation this suffix follows the same rules as -ED1.
1779. Johnson, Gray, Wks. IV. 302. There has of late arisen a practice of giving to adjectives derived from substantives, the termination of participles: such as the ‘cultured’ plain … but I was sorry to see in the lines of a scholar like Gray, the ‘honied’ spring.
1832. Coleridge, Table-t. (1836), 171. I regret to see that vile and barbarous vocable talented.… The formation of a participle passive from a noun is a licence that nothing but a very peculiar felicity can excuse.
