suffer: [13] To suffer something is etymologically to ‘hold it up from underneath’, to ‘sustain’ it’. The word comes via Anglo-Norman suffrir from Vulgar Latin *sufferīre, an alteration of Latin sufferre ‘sustain’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix sub- ‘up from underneath’ and ferre ‘carry’ (a relative of English bear). The word’s modern meaning evolved from ‘sustain’ via ‘undergo’ and ‘undergo something unpleasant’ to ‘endure’. => bear[suffer etymology, suffer origin, 英语词源]