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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 alw

• rrauenza 2y ago
  pumpkin and munchkin come to mind. Googling, apparently napkin is also from that.
  • rbalicki 2y ago
    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-dyed-in-the-wool/ https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2018/04/07/episode-110-d... [2] Podcast 133 https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2020/01/21/episode-133-breaking-bread-with-companions/ https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2020/01/21/episode-133-b...
• lolinder 2y ago
  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_suffixes https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_diminutive...
  • pavel_lishin 2y ago
    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.
  • mjd 2y ago
    And "-let" like in eyelet, bracelet, rivulet, etc.
  • jimbob45 2y ago
    The most common one might be the diminutive for a pot - potty. Potling or potlet would have been much better in my opinion.
  • Earw0rm 2y ago
    '-let' is pretty common as well. (Applet, hamlet and so on)
  • o11c 2y ago
    -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.
• Jordan_Pelt 2y ago
  The only example I can think of is "munchkin" which was apparently coined by Frank Baum for The Wizard of Oz.
• engineer_22 2y ago
  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
  • triyambakam 2y ago
    Kindergarten is not a diminutive but loan word from German.
  • leereeves 2y ago
    Kindergarden comes from German, where "kind" means child.
• NobodyNada 2y ago
  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 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.
  • rendang 2y ago
    -kin is not but via your link https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-kins 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
    • nemomarx 2y ago
      I vaguely associate it with British writing, or at least an antiquated feeling. Reminds me of Widdershins.
  • munificent 2y ago
    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".
• saghm 2y ago
  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.
  • schnable 2y ago
    We have prefixes like “mega” and “super.”
    • onlypassingthru 2y ago
      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.
      • phito 2y ago
        wouldn't micro-, nano-, mini- be diminutives?
  • wlindley 2y ago
    Also "napkin" (from nappe, old for "tablecloth"). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napkin#Etymology_and_terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napkin#Etymology_and_terminolo...
  • physicsguy 2y ago
    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'
• leereeves 2y ago
  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?
• stevesimmons 2y ago
  > 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.
  • munificent 2y ago
    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.
    • Aloisius 2y ago
      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.
  • ianburrell 2y ago
    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.
    • onlypassingthru 2y ago
      ... 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?
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  • 2y ago
• ZeWaka 2y ago
  > Is it used still in common English? Not at all, really only in words 'munchkin', 'napkin', or 'pumpkin'.
• DavidAdams 2y ago
  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.
• CamouflagedKiwi 2y ago
  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).
  • quuxplusone 2y ago
    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.
  • Symbiote 2y ago
    -iekins makes sense to me as a nickname for an infant in Britain. Probably only spoken within the family.
• mturmon 2y ago
  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
  • decimalenough 2y ago
    Don't forget the merkin -- pubic wig. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/merkin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/merkin
  • harperawl 2y ago
    Another one of my favorites, grimalkin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimalkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimalkin): grey + Maude + kin = grimalkin.
  • randomcarbloke 2y ago
    catkin
• ASUfool 2y ago
  Bumpkin? "an awkward, simple, unsophisticated person from a rural area" (dictionary.com)
• mjw1007 2y ago
  "-let" is another one, which is sometimes used in non-childish contexts (eg in "tasklet" or "chiplet").
• throwaway519 2y ago
  It's suffiiently understood to be usable in th3 right context. Ling's another. Both diminuitive but slightly differently.
• Earw0rm 2y ago
  Not much, but it's an anglicisation of the German -chen, which very much is.
• niccl 2y ago
  napkin is literally a small piece of napiery (cloth)
• nrclark 2y ago
  > 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.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• mportela 2y ago
  "-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!