" auxiliary "

[Adjective]  | "aux*il*ia*ry" | \ ȯg-ˈzil-yə-rē \

1: offering or providing help

2: functioning in a subsidiary capacity

3: accompanying another verb and typically expressing person, number, mood, or tense

Origin: 15th century ;

 Middle English, "(of a Roman soldier) not belonging to a regular legion," borrowed from Latin auxiliārius "giving aid, (of troops) supplementing the regular army," from auxilium "assistance, aid, supporting force, reinforcement" (derivative from the base of augēre "to increase") + -ārius {see: |-ary:1|-ary:1} {mat|eke:2|};

  * Note : Though the etymological literature agrees that auxilium is somehow derived from augēre—the original sense having most likely been "augmentation, reinforcement"—the formation is unclear, both in regard to the nature of the interpolated -s- and the suffix -ili-. Ernout and Meillet (Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine) allude to a suggestion of P. Kretschmer (Glotta, 6. Band [1914], 1. Heft, pp. 30-33), that the plural auxilia "auxiliary contingents attached to Roman armies" was originally plural of an adjective *auxilis, formed from *aux- and the suffix -ilis, "tending to, capable of" (as in docilis "teachable," facilis "easy, accommodating"; see: {docile|docile}, {facile|facile}). The attested singular auxilium would hence be a back-formation from auxilia. The -s- is dealt with by simply taking aux- as a by-form of aug- and in effect the weak form of a noun *augos cognate with Sanskrit ójas- "strength.";

[Noun]  | "auxiliary" 

1: an auxiliary person, group, or device; specifically : a member of a foreign force serving a nation at war

2: a Roman Catholic titular bishop assisting a diocesan bishop and not having the right of succession

3: a sailing boat or ship equipped with a supplementary inboard engine

Origin: 1567 ;

 Derivative of {see: |auxiliary:1|auxiliary:1};

[Noun]  | "modal auxiliary" 

1: an auxiliary verb (such as can, must, might, may) that is characteristically used with a verb of predication and expresses a modal modification and that in English differs formally from other verbs in lacking -s and -ing forms

Origin: circa 1904 ;

[Noun]  | "verbal auxiliary" 

1: an auxiliary verb

Origin: circa 1958 ;

[Noun]  | "modal auxiliary verb" 

1: a verb (such as can, could, shall, should, ought to, will, or would) that is usually used with another verb to express ideas such as possibility, necessity, and permission

[Noun]  | "auxiliary" 

[Adjective]  | "auxiliary"