Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/-ǭ

Etymology
Partial merger of and  (see also ). The former originally conjugated as Proto-Indo-European amphikinetic n-stems, but because of the *ā > *ō sound change they came to coincide with the latter in the nominative singular, which lead to the suffix ablaut being lost. Why the feminine and masculine *-ō(n) sounded differently in Germanic, despite having originally sounded the same, is an open question.

Alternative forms

 * *-ōn

Noun

 * 1)  -ess.