Breandán wrote:
In the case of Irish, altra ("nourisher, nurse, foster father", see Dinneen) is the original, bean altra and later banaltra are the derivatives.
Yes, but the meaning ‘nurse’ for
altra is newer than the word
banaltra. The meaning of
altra was a foster-father only (it’s from the same root as
oil ‘to raise, foster, educate, train’). The derived meaning of ‘someone who cares for people who are ill’ is something that arose with the derived form
banaltra. Removing
ban- changes the meaning of the original word.
In Danish,
sygeplejer is also the original, transparent word (‘sick-nurser’ or ‘sick-carer’), and the
-ske suffix was added on to that (‘sick-nurseress’ or ‘sick-careress’), but like
banaltra, it’s become such a set word that it’s just used as is, regardless of gender, and without anyone really thinking of the suffix as being a femininising suffix in that word anymore.