-aia

• -ara (dialectal)

Inherited from Latin -āria, feminine of -ārius. Compare the doublet -aria. Example: Italian operaia, from Latin operāria.

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.ja/
• Rhymes: -aja
• Hyphenation: -à‧ia

-aia f (noun-forming suffix, plural -aie, masculine -aio)

1. forms feminine agent nouns from verbs

   ‎astuccio (“box, carton”) + ‎-aia → ‎astucciaia (“female who makes or sells boxes or cartons”)

   ‎asola (“buttonhole (hole for a button)”) + ‎-aia → ‎asolaia (“female who makes buttonholes”)

   ‎burattino (“pullet”) + ‎-aia → ‎burattinaia (“female puppeteer, female puppet master”)

2. added to nouns to form collective nouns, meaning a place in which to find a great quantity of the named object

   ‎fungo (“mushroom”) + ‎-aia → ‎fungaia (“mushroom bed”)

   ‎riso (“rice”) + ‎-aia → ‎risaia (“paddy field”)

   ‎ghiaccio (“ice”) + ‎-aia → ‎ghiacciaia (“icebox”)

-aia f (non-lemma form of adjective-forming suffix)

1. feminine singular of -aio

• -aria