Childhood is native English through and through: child, which is Old English cild, plus -hood, the Old English ending -had, which turned a noun into a name for the state or condition of being that thing. German built its word the same way, from the same materials, giving Kindheit.
That -hood is one of a small set of native suffixes — alongside -ness, -ship, -dom, -less and -ful — that are worth knowing because they naturalise anything they touch. English will attach them cheerfully to borrowed roots, and the moment it does, the word stops feeling foreign. A Latin root wearing -ness has been domesticated. Childhood, being native from root to ending, is simply the plainest case of the pattern.
childhood (n.) "state of being a child; period of life from birth to puberty," Middle English childhod , from Old English cildhad ; see child + -hood . Similar formation in German Kindheit .
childhood came in through Old English, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| an abstract noun built on a plain word | -ness, -hood, -dom, -shipkindness, childhood, freedom |
What gives it away on the page
| -ness, -hood, -ship, -dom, -less, -ful | Native suffixes. A Latin root wearing one of these has been naturalised.kindness, childhood, freedom |
Old English in the spelling guide · guess another word's family