-ество

Etymology
.

Suffix

 * : -hood, -ness, -ity

Usage notes

 * This suffix is used particularly after the hushing consonants ч ж ш щ, which may result from the applied to nouns whose roots end in к/ц г х ск respectively (or which originally ended in one of these consonants, cf.  < ). It is also occasionally used when impossible clusters would otherwise result, cf.  <  and  from.
 * The longer suffix was generalized through rebracketing of nouns with roots ending in х.