- Pejorative suffix
A pejorative suffix is a
suffix that attaches a negative meaning to the word or word-stem preceding it. There is frequent overlap between this and thediminutive form.The pejorative suffix may add the sense of "a despicable example of the preceding," as in Spanish "-ejo" (see below). It can also convey the sense of "a despicable human having the preceding characteristic"; for instance, as in English "-el" (see below) or the development of the word "cuckold" from Old French "cocu" "cuckoo" + "-ald", taken into Anglo-Saxon as "cokewald" and thus to the modern English word.
Examples of the pejorative suffix:
=Basque=-txo [ [http://www.amazon.ca/Basque-History-World-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0676973663 Amazon.ca: The Basque History of the World: Books: Mark Kurlansky ] ]
=English=-ar, e.g. "beggar"
-ard, e.g. "bastard" (from Old French "bast" "pack-saddle", i.e. "child born in a pack-saddle")
-aster, e.g. "poetaster", "philosophaster" (via Latin)
-el, e.g. "wastrel" (from "waste", i.e. "a wasteful person (pej.)")
-ista e.g. "fashionista" (sometimes used as a more '"playfully" pejorative than others, taken from
Sandinista )-nik, e.g. "peacenik", "neatnik" (via Yiddish or Russian, where it is not necessarily pejorative)
Esperanto -aĉ-, e.g. "veteraĉo" "foul weather" (from "vetero" "weather")
=French=-ald/-ard/-aud, e.g. "salaud" "dirty person" (from "sale" "dirt")
=Hawaiian=-ā (-wā), e.g. "lonoā" "gossip" (from "lono" "news")
-ea, e.g. "poluea" "seasickness" (from "polu" "wet)
=Italian=-accio(a) (or -uccio/a), e.g. "boccaccia" "ugly mug" (from "bocca" "mouth")
=Japanese=-me, e.g. "furiiza-me" "That damn
Freeza !" or "kawaii yatsu-me" "That darn cutie!"Latin
-aster, denoting fraudulent resemblance, e.g. "patraster" "one who plays the father" (from "pater" "father")
Ojibwe (
Anishinaabemowin )-ish, e.g. "animosh" "dog" [ [http://imp.lss.wisc.edu/~jrvalent/ais301/Vocabulary/vocabulary.htm Anishinaabemowin ] ]
Provençal
-asso, e.g. "vidasso" "wretched life" (from "vido" "life")
=Russian=-iška (ишка) [ [http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LangIdeo/Nesset/Nesset.html Tore Nesset "Ideology in inflection" ] ]
-uxa (уха), e.g. "
černuxa ", dramatic term for an unrelentingly bleak cinematic style (from "čern-" "black")
=Spanish=-aco(a), e.g. "pajarraco" "large ugly bird" (from "pajaro" "bird)
-ote(a), e.g. "discursote" "long dull speech" (from "discurso" "speech")
References
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