Suffer

How to spell suffer

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce suffer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suffer mean?

1. verbTo experience or be subjected to pain, distress, or hardship.
2. verbTo tolerate, put up with, or permit something, often reluctantly.

Suffer in a sentence

• Many patients suffer in silence rather than asking for help.

• The strict manager would not suffer careless mistakes from the team.

• Small businesses often suffer during a long recession.

• She does not gladly suffer excuses for missed deadlines.

Where does suffer come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin sufferre, which combined the prefix sub-, meaning 'from below' or 'up', with the verb ferre, meaning 'to bear' or 'to carry'. The literal sense was therefore to bear something up from underneath, to hold up under a weight, which slid naturally into the idea of enduring pain or hardship. English took it in around 1200 through Old French sofrir, and the same ferre root carries on in everyday words such as 'transfer', 'refer', and 'offer'. An older meaning, 'to allow or tolerate', survives in fixed phrases like 'to suffer fools'. The doubled f reflects the Latin assimilation of sub- to suf- before the f of ferre, which is exactly the spelling point worth remembering.

How the word is built

• suf- (from sub-: from below, up)
• fer (from Latin ferre: to bear, carry)