ery

Ery is a suffix in English that forms nouns, most often indicating a place for a particular activity, the products of that activity, or the collective body associated with it. It originates from Old French -erie, a form related to Latin -arium, and has been productive in English since the medieval period.

In modern usage, -ery words include both workplaces and their functions. Common examples of places include bakery (a shop for baking bread), brewery (a place for brewing beer), joinery (a workshop for carpentry), pottery (both the craft and the workshop for making pottery), and distillery (a facility for distillation). Other -ery terms name the craft or the items produced, such as cookware and pottery as a material category, or machinery and cookery to denote a field of work or a body of objects. Some -ery words refer to people or groups associated with the activity, though this sense is less common today and often falls to specialized or historical usage (smithery being primarily archaic).

The semantics of -ery thus vary by word: it can signal a physical location, the trade or craft itself, or the collection of goods and equipment related to that trade. Because English vocabulary evolves, some -ery terms are considered archaic or regional, while others remain common in everyday language. Overall, the suffix acts as a productive means to form nouns that connect an activity with its setting, tools, or products.

See also: English suffixes -ery and -ary, related forms in other languages.