Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/-uc

Etymology
Janhunen (1981) proposed that is from, from  and related to 🇨🇬 (compare 🇨🇬) and 🇨🇬 (< ), but Salminen (2014) has cast doubt on this etymology by rejecting the presence of  in the Samoyedic word.

Korhonen (1981) mentions an alternative etymology that is a reduction of  (and thus cognate with 🇨🇬, which would be an early Finnic borrowing), a theory which Hakulinen however rejects on the basis that there is insufficient evidence for the required semantic and phonological development.

More recently, Junttila (2019) has written that could in fact be related to 🇨🇬 and that the suffix may have originally been an independent back-vocalic word that was used to form compounds. He does not however elaborate on whether this word was or not, and states that the theory is uncertain as there is no widely accepted etymology for the Finnic and Samic morphemes. Aikio, in his draft of the Uralic Etymological Dictionary, speculates on a possible etymology from or, and lists 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 as possible cognates. This theory requires to be the original primary form. With this in mind, it appears that is probably somehow related to 🇨🇬 and that both originate from a common independent word (rather than an affix), but the exact nature of this word and its further origin is as of yet.

Suffix

 * 1) -ness, -hood