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🔹 Deadjectival Nouns Ending in -icia

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The suffix -icia forms a very small group of feminine nouns expressing quality or state, almost all learned words inherited from Latin. The RAE treats it as the learned counterpart of -eza: justicia, malicia, avaricia, and inmundicia are the four central examples the Academy itself cites. Unlike -ez or -idad, it's not a productive pattern in modern Spanish, so the genuine list is short.

#Spanish NounNoun in EnglishBase AdjectiveBase Adjective in English
1justiciajustice; fairnessjustojust; fair
2injusticia *injustice; unfairnessinjustounjust; unfair
3maliciamalice; malicious intent; cunningmalobad; evil
4avariciagreed; avariceavarogreedy; miserly
5inmundiciafilth; impurityinmundofilthy; impure
6estulticiafoolishness; stupidityestultofoolish; stupid
7pudiciciamodesty; decency (rare)púdicomodest; decent
Important morphophonological details:
  • avaricia, inmundicia, justicia, and malicia are the four central examples the RAE identifies for this suffix.
  • malicia (from Latin malitia) doesn't always mean maldad ('evil'): it's closer to 'ill intent' or 'slyness' than to 'wickedness' in the full sense.
  • injusticia is morphologically ambiguous: synchronically it can also be analyzed as in- + justicia, not necessarily as injusto + -icia. It's included anyway for its transparent relationship with injusto.
  • estulticia relates to Latin stultitia (from stultus, 'foolish'); it's a rarely used but dictionary-recorded learned word.
  • pudicicia is very rarely used; today pudor or pudicia is preferred.
  • Words like pericia, impericia, noticia, codicia, caricia, and delicia are not included in this chart: although they end in -icia, they aren't direct examples of this A-icia pattern.
  • -icie stays a separate suffix: calvo → calvicie, cano → canicie, plano → planicie.
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