Arium

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A suffix used in the formation of nouns indicating a place associated with a specific function or purpose
2. A morphological element signifying a location or container related to a particular subject or activity
3. A suffix denoting a space or environment set aside for a particular function or activity

Etymology: "-arium" is a Latin suffix, and the surprise is how it reached English: largely through modern scientific and technical coinages rather than through everyday Latin speech. In Latin, "-arium" formed nouns such as "aquarium" (a water-place) from the adjective-forming "-arius" plus the neuter "-ium" ending, so the suffix originally named a container or place connected with a thing. "Aquarium" itself is a Latin word, used for a water tank or fishpond, and it passed into English in the 19th century, when public tanks for fish became fashionable. The suffix really spread in English after that, not in ancient usage. Modern writers attached it to new roots to name specialised places: "planetarium," "sanitarium," "herbarium," "solarium." Ancient Greeks and Romans never used most of these forms, so they should not be pictured as having coined them. Speakers simply treated "-arium" as a ready-made label for "a place for this".