A headline in today’s Baltimore Sun notes that an official caught in controversy is being praised for her “candidness.” Whatever happened to “candor”? I’ve also seen “valorousness” for “valor,” “confusedness” for confusion, “cowardliness” for “cowardice,” “maliciousness” for “malice,” “recursiveness” for “recursion” and (more than once) “novitiate” for “novice” (the “novitiate” properly designates the status or the period of time, not the person).
Anyone who spots additional examples of unnecessary suffixization is encouraged to send them in; I’ll try to post a comprehensive list. (Note: “prideful” for “proud’ isn’t a mistake; “prideful” always refers to sinful pride, while “proud” is usually used with a positive connotation, even by those with a Sunday belief that pride is sinful.)
Update Some wonderful additional nominees: “piousness” for “piety,” “pretension” for “pretense” (“pretension” is a perfectly good word, but it means a claim of right or status, as for example the claim made by a pretender to a throne, not merely pretending that something is true), and “admonishment” for “admonition.”