-ence

suffix attached to verbs to form nouns of process or fact (convergence from converge), or of state or quality (absence from absent); from O.Fr. -ance, from L. -entia/-antia (from -ent- participle stem + -ia suffix forming nouns of condition or quality). The L. variants -entia and -antia were mostly leveled to -ance in O.Fr., but words borrowed later by Eng. directly from L. sometimes kept their L. vowels (diligence, absence), and others have since c.1500 been re-spelled to conform with L., causing much irregularity (attendance, but superintendence, etc.).