Talk:suffering

Verbs and prepositions

Quotations showing the verbs and prepositions around "suffering":

• Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering,[1].

--Dan Polansky 15:30, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

what is correct "I am suffering from fever" or "I am suffering with/through fever" ??? please comment with grammatical explanations, thanks.

This probably come way too late, but the correct answer would be "I am suffering from fever": "from" indicates the cause of your suffering.

You can say "I am suffering with fever", but it just sounds odd. "I am suffering through fever" is also correct, although it adds the dimension of time: you are going through a phase, in this case fever. The latter formulation is more commonly used when the affliction is severe (or more so than is ususal): "I am suffering through a bad case of fever".

RFV discussion: January–March 2022

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suffering

Defined as "Experiencing pain." This is just participle form of "experience pain", a definition of suffer. So adjective PoS is redundant to verb PoS. DCDuring (talk) 16:20, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

It is possible to find very rare uses of "too suffering" and "very suffering" that seem to indicate use as an adjective, e.g. [2] [3]. I must admit that these uses feel wrong to me, and in my idiolect the word is just a regular participle. (Maybe "too suffering" is an alternative way of saying "suffering too much", and "very suffering" a way of saying "suffering very much", still using "suffering" as a participle rather than adjective? I don't think those are standard ways of using the words "too" and "very", however.)

Btw, the translation box for the adjective includes some translations that are actually for the noun sense of "suffering", such as souffrance. 70.172.194.25 19:16, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

Okay yea this one should definitely be moved to RFD. AG202 (talk) 20:21, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

It appears the OED recognizes it as an adjective:

1. That endures patiently, long-suffering n.; inured to suffering; submissive. Obsolete.
2. Passive. Obsolete.
3.  
   1. Of persons, their character, condition, etc.: That suffers, or is characterized by the suffering of, pain, affliction, or distress.
   2. In Puritan use, with reference to hardships endured for the sake of religion, esp. in suffering saint.
   3. [After French souffrant.] Ill, indisposed. rare.
   4. suffering cat(s)! an exclamation expressing surprise or annoyance. Also the suffering Moses (cf. Moses n. 1c), etc.
4. transferred. Becoming impaired by use. Obsolete.

Graham11 (talk) 09:37, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 02:36, 30 March 2022 (UTC)