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-hood
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-hood is an English suffix that indicates a "state, condition,or characteristic of" <s>or a group sharing a certain characteristic</s>. Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, Second Ed. - CD version 3.1, 2004) gives this: Originally a distinct noun, meaning ‘person, personality, sex, condition, quality, rank’, which being freely combined with nouns, as in OE. cild-hád child-condition, mæ?ð-hád virgin state, pápan hád papal dignity, ceased at length to be used as a separate word, and survived as a mere suffix, and is thus noteworthy as a late example of the process by which suffixes arose. Examples include childhood and falsehood. It is cognate with the German language suffix -heit, e.g. Kindheit. Examples *Adulthood *Brotherhood *Buddhahood *Childhood *Falsehood *Fatherhood *Godhood *Knighthood *Likelihood *Manhood *Motherhood *Neighbourhood *Parenthood *Personhood *Priesthood *Sainthood *Sisterhood *Statehood *Womanhood 
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