Why does “lineage” retain the "e" when the suffix "-age" is added?
"Lineage" (/ˈlɪn·i·ɪdʒ/) is equivalent to "line" + "-age". Other such nouns lose the "e" when this suffix is added:
| Stem | + Suffix | = Noun |
|---|---|---|
| Anecdote | + Age | = Anecdotage |
| Cleave | + Age | = Cleavage |
| Dose | + Age | = Dosage |
| Store | + Age | = Storage |
| Use | + Age | = Usage |
Why does "lineage" stray from this trend and retain the "e" after we add "-age"?
Solution 1:
According to Etymonline the Middle English word was linage ("line of descent; an ancestor"), which came from the Old French lignage.
"The word altered in spelling and pronunciation in early Modern English, apparently by some combined influence of line (n.) and lineal."
I wonder if there was further influence from 'linear' (from the French linéaire) and 'lineal' (from the Old French 'lineal'!)
Perhaps there was also an acknowledgement that a phoneme in the OF lignage had been elided in ME.