ABSTRACT
25.11. -fy [-fai], verbal suffix, is from F -fier, from L -ficare, which in MedL sometimes also represents Classical L -facere, as in liquefy from liquefacere. In both cases the suffix has the meaning ‘make’ or ‘make into’. In words from orig. -ficare we have always i before the suffix, thus in the following early loanwords: certify, clarify, deify, glorify, justify, pacify, purify, sanctify, signify, and testify; whereas in words from -facere we may have the vowel e, though the real sound may be the same, before -fy, as in putrefy, rubefy, stupefy (formerly also stupify, perhaps with allusion to stupid, thus Thack V 309); satisfy falls outside this rule.
