Suffer has the doubled consonant of an assimilated Latin prefix: sub, "under," plus ferre, "to carry," giving sufferre, "to bear, to undergo" — literally to carry from underneath. The b of sub became an f to match the root, and English inherited both letters. Accept, appear, immediate and collect all show the same seam.
English took it in the mid-1200s through Anglo-French, and it displaced the Old English words tholian and throwian. Its development in English is bound up with the Passion — Christ suffering, martyrs suffering — which is why the word carries such weight. The older sense of allowing something is still visible in suffer the little children and in sufferance, and it makes better sense of the root: to suffer something is to bear it, and bearing shades easily into permitting.
suffer (v.) mid-13c., sufferen , "allow to occur or continue, refrain from hindering, fail to prevent or suppress," also "be made to undergo, endure, be subjected to" (pain, death, punishment, grief, injury, humiliation); from Anglo-French suffrir , Old French sofrir "bear, endure, resist; permit, tolerate, allow" (Modern French souffrir ), from Vulgar Latin *sufferire , variant of Latin sufferre "to bear, undergo, endure, carry or put under." This is a compound of sub "up, under" (see sub- ) + ferre "to carry, bear," from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry," also "to bear children." It replaced Old English þolian , þrowian . Its use and sense development in English are entwined with the story of Christ's Passion and martyrs' tales. The meaning "submit meekly to" is from early 14c. The intransitive meaning "undergo or submit to stress, affliction, pain, death" is from early 14c.; especially "undergo without succumbing, endure bravely or unflinchingly" (mid-14c.). The general meaning "undergo, be subject to, be affected by, experience; be acted on by an agent" is from late 14c. Related: Suffered ; sufferer ; suffering . Suffering ______! as an exclamation is attested from 1859; perhaps influenced by phrases in Puritan literature, such as suffering saint . For ye suffre foles gladly because that ye youreselves are wyse. [II Corinthians vi in Tyndale, 1526] Who can suffre hath his desire. [from Peter Idley's Instructions to His Son] also from mid-13c.
suffer came in through Latin, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| a consonant that sounds doubled just after a prefix | double it. The prefix assimilated to the root: ad+cept, ad+prove, in+mediate, com+lectaccept, approve, immediate, collect, suffer |
What gives it away on the page
| a doubled consonant after a short prefix | The prefix assimilated to the root: ad+cept, ad+prove, in+mediate, com+lect.accept, approve, immediate, collect, suffer |