-ora termination of words, and form of various suffixes, of Latin origin.Latin long ō in earlyOF.was represented by a close sound between (ō) and (ū), written variously o and u, as in L. honōrem,OF.onor, onur. InAngloFr.the sound sank into (ū) and came c 1300 to be written ou (onour). In continentalFr., on the other hand, the sound passed at length into eu=ö (oneur, honneur). The earliest adopted words inME.had o or u (onor, onur), but the regular representation after 1300 was that ofAngloFr.ou (onour, honour). In many instances this is still retained; but, at the Renascence, many of the -our words, which in other respects were like their L. originals, were conformed to the L. in -or; and nearly all words taken then or later directly from L. were spelt -or, though, even in these words, there was at first a considerable vacillation between -or and -our. In Great Britain the traditional -our is still written in many of the words in which it was retained in the 16th c., though not a few of these, as ancestor, author, error, horror, prior, senator, tailor, are now spelt with -or, which spelling is extended in American usage to all the -our words.This termination appears in the following suffixes:1.-or (formerly often -our), representing ultimately L. -or, -ōrem, in nouns of condition fromintr.vbs.in -ēre, less usually from othervbs., as error, horror, liquor, pallor, stupor, tenor, terror, torpor, tremor, etc. Such of these as existed inME.were formerly spelt with -our,e.g.errour, horrour, licour, tenour. In other words of the same class, as ardour, favour, fervour, humour, labour, rigour, valour, vigour, as also in some words not directly connected with extant L. verbs, as colour, honour, odour, -our is generally retained in British usage, but American usage spells these also with -or: ardor, favor, labor, color, honor, etc.2.-or (formerly often -our),repr.L. -or, -ōrem of agent-nouns, formed on stems identical with theppl.or ‘supine’ stems of verbs. Of these there are three varieties:a.Thoserepr.L. agent-nouns other than those in -ātor, -ētor, -itor, -ītor; as actor, assessor, author, captor, censor, confessor, doctor, elector, extensor, factor, flexor, inventor, lictor, oppressor, pastor, possessor, professor, rector, sculptor, sponsor, successor, transgressor, tutor, victor. These are of different ages, going back toOF.words in -or, -ur,AF.in -our=F. -eur, or L. in -or. So far as they existed inME., they were then spelt -our,e.g.actour, assessour, authour, censour, confessour, dettour, doctour, etc.; they are now all conformed to the L. spelling in -or.b.Agent-nouns in L. -ātor, -ētor, -itor, -ītor, in coming down in living use intoOF., were regularly reduced from -ātōr-em, etc., through -edor to -eör, -eür,AF.-eour, which became inME.-our, and in F. -eur, and thus fell together with those from simple -ōr-em in a. Such are barrator, cessor, (:—cessatōr-em), conqueror, donor, emperor (imperātōr-em), governor, juror, lessor, solicitor, vendor, visitor (visitātōr-em). To this group also belongs saviour (AF.sauveöur:—OF.salveör, salvedor, L. salvātōr-em), which has preserved the vowel before -our. To these may be added agent-nouns formed inFr.orAF.on thevb.stem, in imitation of those in -eör, -eur, -our,repr.L. -ātōrem, etc., as purveyor, surveyor, tailor, grantor, warrior (AF.werreyour,f.werreier to war). From want of evidence it is sometimes uncertain whether the agent-noun was already formed in late L. in -ātor, -itor, or inFr.after these suffixes had been reduced to -eör and -eur,AF.-our.c.Agent-nouns in -ātor, -ētor, -itor, -ītor, -ūtor, adopted in later times inFr., or inEng., retain t, appearing in French as -ateur, -iteur, etc., and have now inEng.the same written form as in L.,e.g.administrator, agitator, creator, curator, dictator, equator, gladiator, imitator, legislator, navigator, spectator, translator, vindicator; orator, procurator, senator; auditor, creditor, editor, janitor, monitor, servitor; executor. These are of different ages: some fromOF.orAF.(in which case they formerly had -our, as creatour, creditour, dictatour, oratour, servitour); some of later formation immediately from L., which have had the -or form from the first. The pronunciation varies greatly, the stress being sometimes as in the L. nominative (creˈator, ˈcreditor), sometimes on the second syllable before the stressed vowel of theAF.and L. accusative (on which a secondary stress fell originally inME.), as in ˈauditor (ˌaudiˈtour, ˌaudīˈtōrem), ˈorator (ˌoraˈtour, ˌōrāˈtōrem), ˈsenator (ˌsenaˈtour, ˌsēnāˈtōrem), ˈservitor (ˈserviˈtour, ˌservīˈtōrem), eˈxecutor (eˌxecuˈtour, eˌxecūˈtōrem), sometimes corresponding with that of theEng.vb., as adˈministrator, ˈagitator, ˈimitator, ˈprosecutor, or otherwise shifted, as ˈprocurator. In some cases two forms exist, as cuˈrator after L.nom., ˈcurator after ˌcuraˈtour, ˌcūrāˈtōrem.d.-or is sometimes an alteration of another suffix, as of L. -ārius, F. -ier,AF.-er, in bachelor, chancellor, heritor, or ofEng.-er:—OE.-ere, in sailor, bettor.The frequent occurrence ofME.-our,mod.-or, in legal terms denoting the person acting, as opposed to the person acted upon in -é, -ee,e.g.lessor lessee, grantor grantee, mortgageor mortgagee, has imparted a kind of technical or professional character to the ending, and explains the differentation of sailor, one who sails professionally, from sailer. InME.there was a tendency to confuse the endings -er and -our (helpedprob.by theOF.declensionnom.-ère:—L. -ātor,acc.-or, -ur, -eur, L. -ātōrem); thus butcher, dicer, fletcher, jailer, jester, juggler, porter, etc. are found also with the ending -our. On the other hand, in a large number of words, the original -our, -or has, since the 15th c., been exchanged for the -er of agent-nouns of English derivation; such are barber, broker, chanter, diviner, labourer, pleader, preacher, robber, rimer or rhymer, in all which the earlier -our, -or, is the etymological form.3.-or (-our) sometimes represents F. -oir, from various sources, as manor,OF.manoir, maneir, L. manēre; mirror, F. miroir, L. *mīrātorium; so with -our, parlour, F. parloir, L. *parabolātōrium.4.-or,repr.ME.andAF.-our, F. -eur, L. -or, -ōrem, a variant of -ior, suffix of the comparative degree ofadjs., in major, minor. See -ior².