-ITE

suffix forming nouns meaning 'a person or thing connected with': 1 in names of persons: a as natives of a country (Israelite). b often derog. as followers of a movement etc. (pre-Raphaelite; Trotskyite). 2 in names of things: a fossil organisms (ammonite). b minerals (graphite). c constituent parts of a body or organ (somite). d explosives (dynamite). e commercial products (ebonite; vulcanite). f salts of acids having names in - ous (nitrite; sulphite). [from or after F -ite f. L -ita f. Gk -ites]