A part placed after a word to change its meaning or class. It carries no meaning alone and alters everything it joins.
Latin suffigere (to fasten on beneath, to affix after), from sub (under, after) + figere (to fix); a part placed after a word was named for being fixed on, not for carrying meaning of its own.
A fragment that means nothing on its own, useful only for what it does once it is fixed to something else. Whatever it joins is changed by it, in sense or in class or in both.