Suffer

The verb 'to suffer', which is derived from the Latin sub- (under) and ferre 'to bear', has developed two main meanings in modern English. Do not be confused by the use of one sense when you may be expecting the other. The general meaning is 'to undergo', or 'to put up with'.

• The commoner meaning by far in present-day English is 'to undergo' in the sense of enduring some unpleasant experience, or experience pain or grief. Readers whose first language is not English may care to consider this distinction: people suffer; their wounds hurt (that is, humans, and other animals, experience pain;: their illnesses and hurts cause pain. One can suffer
  • physical pains, as in fever, or from accidents and other injuries; one may suffer death, or one's fate;
  • emotional pain, as in grief, or because someone has betrayed one, or from many other reasons;
  • financial problems, as in "I [or the bank] suffered great losses in the credit crunch"; and
  • a variety of transferred and metaphorical meanings.
  • In historical and literary writing, you may see the precise usage of certain Christians, that they suffered at such-and-such a date. This means that they were killed: they suffered death [sometimes "unto death"] for their faith, and thus 'they suffered' means, in these contexts, 'they were martyred'. In the vasrious Christian creeds, it is said that Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried."
• From as far back as 1300, the alternative meaning of 'to allow', or 'to let', has been available in English. It is this meaning that appears in the Authorised Version translation of the Christian Bible, when Jesus said "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God" (Luke 18:16; also Matthew 19:14).

The first meaning above is connected to the second, in that to undergo pain is seen as 'allowing' it to be inflicted on one. Curiously there is a similar split in meaning with the words patient and passion (or Passion), which, from a different origin, also in Latin, has come to share one of the meanings.