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Comment by soneca | Hacker News Reader

I didn’t know English had a diminutive suffix (-kin). Is it used still in common English?

We have it Portuguese (-inho/-inha) and I find them so useful. It always seemed a missing feature of English.

Also, is there an augmentative suffix as well that I don’t know about?

English has a few diminutive suffixes. Which one is used depends a lot on the shape of the word and the era, but the most common one today is -y.

So a child's toy might be Beary, and the kid might go by Johnny. We also have -ling, as in duckling, and a whole bunch of less common ones [0].

You're right, though, that we don't use our diminutives nearly as often as the Iberian languages do. If you tried to use them as much as you would in Portuguese you would definitely not sound like a native speaker, but they do exist.

Mostly they're used in the register of speech that we use when speaking to very young children (i.e. "baby talk"), in nicknames, or in older words that acquired a diminutive a long time ago and now register as just a word on their own.

[0] https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_diminutive...

-ette is still productive but collides with the female sense

-kins (I've only heard it with an s) is arguably still productive, but in very limited contexts - unlike other diminutives, it seems to only be used when an actual small baby is involved, not for mere endearment, though in this context it can be used either for the baby or for the people around the baby.

-let is still productive (applet = small app; even Aplet = candied apple is only documented a century back); only takes ordinary nouns.

-ling feels still productive, but new archetypes are rare so it's mostly used with preexisting words.

-ole and variants might be productive in science but are otherwise not even recognized.

-poo is apparently productive but not something I ever reach for

-ses I'm not convinced is actually correctly analyzed; it appears to just be a redundant plural, similar to how "bestest" is a redundant superlative

-sies is actually just -s (diminutive/filler) + -ie/-y (diminutive) + -s (plural). Usually the first -s is required for a word that ends with a vowel (but also after n (including nd/nt with the d/t weakened), m, ng, r, l, p, or b; the need for disambiguation is also relevant)

But -y/-ie remains by far the dominant diminutive. It shouldn't be confused with several other uses of the suffix though (such as with the meaning of -ish).

Influence from Romance languages is strong enough that foreign diminutives are now more common than some of the traditional English diminutives.

-o is most characteristic of Australian English but English speakers over the world are familiar with "kiddo", "psycho", and now "doggo".

My own kiddo, at the age of two or three, decided that -o was a productive suffix and started calling me and her mother "Daddo" and "Mommo".

I don't think that's actually a diminutive (meaning shifts to add smallness or endearment), just a colloquializer (meaning doesn't change, just becomes less formal; dialects may adopt a particular informal word as standard).

not sure psycho counts, as it works in every language that uses the greek? latin? base.

Also I kinda liked learning about smoko, even as a non-smoker.

> But -y/-ie remains by far the dominant diminutive. It shouldn't be confused with several other uses of the suffix though (such as with the meaning of -ish).

I think the -y meaning of ish is very closely related to if not identical to the diminutive use.

-een is there but probably more common in Ireland/Scotland than in other places.

Another example: "kiddie pool".

Also, I'll often refer to my child as "kidling" or "childling". English can be a fun language to play in.

One of my favorite jokes relies on this.

Q: Where does a general keep his armies?

A: In his sleevies!

And "-let" like in eyelet, bracelet, rivulet, etc.

'-let' is pretty common as well. (Applet, hamlet and so on)

I think the most common diminutive in English preceding the word with the word "little". This is not a suffix but is used in much the same ways as diminutive suffixes are used in other latin languages.

"little bear" and "little johnny" would both be quite natural phrases.

The most common one might be the diminutive for a pot - potty. Potling or potlet would have been much better in my opinion.

If you want to go looking,

  grep '[^s]kin$' /usr/share/dict/words

turns up a lot. You have to guess at the candidates, like:

  pipkin -- a little earthenware pot
  firkin -- a small cask
  dodkin -- a coin of little value
  ciderkin -- watered-down cider

Another one of my favorites, grimalkin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimalkin):

grey + Maude + kin = grimalkin.

Don't forget the merkin -- pubic wig.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/merkin

catkin

No, -kin is not a suffix used anymore. English does have a diminutive suffix though, it's -y/-ie: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-y#Suffix_2

For example, John -> Johnny, Tim -> Timmy, Grace -> Gracie, cat -> kitty, horse -> horsey. As far as I can think of, it can only applied to one-syllable nouns; longer words must be clipped first -- e.g. Katherine -> Kat(y|ey|ie), Tobias -> Toby, Andrew -> Andy, stomach -> tummy.

I can't think of an augmentive suffix that can be applied to names.

I'd expect augmentives for names to be rare because they're often pejorative and the opposite of endearing. I have occasionally known people whose nickname is something like "Big Fred".

In modern English, you could probably get away with a nickname like "Fredzilla".

-kin is not but via your link https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-kins sometimes "-ikins"/"-ykins" is used, I've heard this before but can't think of any specific examples

I vaguely associate it with British writing, or at least an antiquated feeling. Reminds me of Widdershins.

A "bodkin," an archaic word for a small knife or sharp implement, is probably a diminutive of "bod" or dagger. A "jerkin" or a tight vest, might be a diminutive of the Dutch "jerk," (dress), but all of these words are so old it's hard to nail down their etymology. As other commenters pointed out, today's diminutive suffix is -y/-ey, used mostly for childhood nicknames and baby-talk names like horsey.

I can't say I've ever heard "kin" used in everyday English speech. The only generally recognizable example word I can think of using it is "munchkin", which either refers to certain small residents of Oz (from "The Wizard of Oz" lore) or the name Dunkin' uses for the confection more generically known as a "doughnut hole" (which if you're not familiar with it is essentially the doughy center of the doughnut removed to make the hole and in my opinion should be called something like "inverse doughnut holes", although no one else seems to feel as strongly as me about it).

I had to Google what "augmentative suffix" was; despite having taken several years of Spanish in middle school and high school and being aware of the concept, I somehow hadn't heard that term before! I don't think there's anything common for that in English; the only thing that springs to mind for me is the prefix "big-ass", which probably isn't different enough from the typical adjective used for this purpose to qualify.

Also "napkin" (from nappe, old for "tablecloth"). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napkin#Etymology_and_terminolo...

Only one I can think of these days are when kids call their parents something liked 'Daddykins'. But obviously there are words where it's now part of the word in it's own right today like 'napkin' or 'catkin'

We have prefixes like “mega” and “super.”

See also: jumbo-, hyper-, micro-, nano-, mini-, uber-.

I'm sure there are more but I haven't done enough crossword puzzles lately to be on top of my game.

wouldn't micro-, nano-, mini- be diminutives?

Not much, but it's an anglicisation of the German -chen, which very much is.

I don't think there are many cases where it's used "correctly" but it does get constructed in some cases - e.g. in Harry Potter some of Ron's brothers call him "ickle Ronniekins", which is slightly nonsense but we recognise it immediately as a maximally diminutive form of his name.

I can't think of an augmentative suffix, only prefixes (super- and things like that).

We (via French, I guess) have a mildly productive suffix "-ette" or "-et", as in cigar-ette, kitchen-ette (floret, bassinet, owlet). It doesn't imply animateness the way "-kin" does; e.g. "hotelette" or "showerette" seem like plausible coinages in a way "hotelkin" and "showerkin" don't (but I sense some cross-pollination from Japanese "-kun" messing with my interpretation of the latter). But "-ette" certainly connotes femininity: "little Ronniekins" says he's a baby, but "little Ronnette" says he's a girl.

-iekins makes sense to me as a nickname for an infant in Britain. Probably only spoken within the family.

"-y" is a quite common diminutive suffix in English nowadays. As a fun fact, Americans find hilarious/cute how Brazilians pronounce English words ending in consonants (e.g. WhatsApp/Facebook) adding an extra "i/ee/y" sound because it sounds like adding "-inho" to them!

> I didn’t know English had a diminutive suffix (-kin). Is it used still in common English?

No, at least not in the US. In American English, you'd use a modifier instead of a suffix. We have some pre-diminutized words like "oopsie", but no general-purpose suffix that you can attach to anything.

There are some _prefixes_ that you can use though. You could prepend just about anything with "micro", and people will know you mean "a small version of X".

> Also, is there an augmentative suffix as well that I don’t know about?

Also no (at least not that I can think of). Modifiers are also more common. You can also use prefixes like "Mega" as an augmentative. Depending on the word, this can be used for comic effect.

Bumpkin?

"an awkward, simple, unsophisticated person from a rural area" (dictionary.com)

Yes, but it's archaic

Some places sell munchkins (little donuts)

and we send our 4-5 yr old children to Kindergarden

but we dont stick it to the end of words like inho/inha in portuguese or ito/ita in spanish

Kindergarten is not a diminutive but loan word from German.

Kindergarden comes from German, where "kind" means child.

I haven't seen -kin is used as a diminutive suffix in modern American English, in the way -ito,-ita is in Spanish (niñito, perrito). Maybe in England?

The only example I can think of is "munchkin" which was apparently coined by Frank Baum for The Wizard of Oz.

> Is it used still in common English?

Not at all, really only in words 'munchkin', 'napkin', or 'pumpkin'.

It's suffiiently understood to be usable in th3 right context.

Ling's another. Both diminuitive but slightly differently.

> Is it still used in common English?

pumpkin

Though now I think about it, it's very odd diminutive. Pumpkins are large rather than small.

Dictionary says that pumpkin came from French pompon (large melon) and was originally pumpion. English colonists named the orange melon they discovered in New World pumpkin.

Maybe it was joke pronunciation, calling large melon small. It could be a term of endearment for favorite melon. It could be they wanted to distinguish between all large melons and this large melon. Or it could be pronunciation drifting from use.

... or were early New World squash just of the smaller variety and only recently have we selectively bred them once that Mendel fellow started messing around with his peas?

I don't think pumpkin gets is name from the "-kin" diminutive.

Etymologyonline says: 1640s, "gourd-like fruit, of a deep orange-yellow color when ripe, of a coarse decumbent vine native to North America," an alteration of pompone, pumpion "melon, pumpkin" (1540s), from French pompon, from Latin peponem (nominative pepo) "melon," from Greek pepon "melon."

So the "n" has been on the end of the word for a long time.

OED says it was remodeled with the diminutive:

> Alteration of pumpion, variant of pompion n., with remodelling of the ending after words in ‑kin suffix.

Jack o' lanterns are large, but plenty of the older varieties are softball sized.

pumpkin and munchkin come to mind. Googling, apparently napkin is also from that.

The History of the English language podcast talks about the word napkin in multiple places:

[1] Podcast 110 https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2018/04/07/episode-110-d...

[2] Podcast 133 https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2020/01/21/episode-133-b...

"-let" is another one, which is sometimes used in non-childish contexts (eg in "tasklet" or "chiplet").

napkin is literally a small piece of napiery (cloth)

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