German

Suffix

-erei f ‎(genitive -erei, plural -ereien)

1. Used to form verbal nouns, which often have an informal and/or negative overtone.

   warten ‎(“to wait”) — Warterei ‎(“[lengthy] waiting”)

   singen ‎(“to sing”) — Singerei ‎(“[unpleasant] singing”)

Usage notes

• This suffix is of virtually unlimited productivity in colloquial German.
• Verbs whose stems end in -er- or -el- use the simple suffix -ei instead:

quengeln ‎(“to whine”) — Quengelei ‎(“whining”)

Synonyms

• ge-

See also

• -ei

Italian

Etymology

From -er- + -ei.

• -er- is the reduced form of the Italian infinitive endings -are and -ere.
• -ei stems from Vulgar Latin hĕbui / (h)ĕ(bu)i, from classical Latin habuī, first-person singular perfect of habeō.^[1]

The Italian conditional mood stems from a Vulgar Latin periphrastic verb form consisting of infinitive + perfect of habere. Example: Italian loderei ‎(“I would praise”) stems from Vulgar Latin laudare + hĕbui.^[1]

Suffix

-erei

1. Used with a stem to form the first-person singular conditional of regular -are and -ere verbs.

See also Italian grammar, section Conditional mood in the English Wikipedia.

Related terms

References

1. 1 2 Patota, Giuseppe (2002) Lineamenti di grammatica storica dell'italiano (in Italian), Bologna: il Mulino, ISBN 88-15-08638-2, page 153