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 the diminutive 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:


Catalan

-alla -alles Suffixed to nouns gives new nouns. Examples: gentalla (from gent "people"). It's also used as a collective (group) suffix.

-arro -arros (fem. -arra -arres) Suffixed to nouns gives new nouns. Example: veuarra (from veu "voice"). It's also used as an augmentative suffix.

-astre -astres (fem. -astra -astres) Suffixed to nouns gives new nouns. Example: poetastra (from poeta "poet"). This suffix has also the meaning "indirect relation with".

-ot -ots (fem. -ota -otes) Suffixed to nouns gives new nouns. Example: sabatot (from sabata "shoe"). Suffixed to adjectives gives new adjectives. Example: lletjot (from lleig "ugly"). As a suffix it also means "object", giving a lexicalized word.

Dutch

-erd, e.g. stouterd "naughty one" (from stout "naughty")

-erik, e.g. viezerik "filthy person" (from vies "dirty")

English

-ard, e.g. coward, dullard, sluggard, drunkard (via Old French) [1][2]

-tard, e.g. Paultard, conspiratard, libtard--new productive suffix from combination of retard and similarity to non-productive suffix -ard

-aster, e.g. poetaster, philosophaster (via Latin)

-ster, e.g. hipster, oldster (via Old English)

-ite, e.g. Paisleyite, Shiite (a follower or adherent of a person or doctrine; deprecatory term often given by opponents)

-nik, e.g. peacenik, neatnik (via Yiddish or Russian, where it is not necessarily pejorative)

-rel, e.g. mongrel, wastrel (from Middle English, from Old French)

-er, e.g. stoner, goner, beaner, truther, birther (not to be confused with other -er suffixes, e.g. occupation or comparative)

Esperanto

-aĉ, e.g. veteraĉo "foul weather" (from vetero "weather"), domaĉo "hovel" (from domo "house"), hundaĉo "cur" (from hundo "dog")

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

-め (-me), e.g. 「化け物め」 (bakemono-me) "That damn monster!" or 「可愛いやつめ」　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"[3]

Provençal

-asso, e.g. vidasso "wretched life" (from vido "life")

Russian

-iška (ишка) [4]

-uxa (уха), pejorative for non-personal nouns, e.g. černuxa, dramatic term for an unrelentingly bleak cinematic style (from čern- "black")

-jaga (яга), pejorative for persons, e.g. skuperdjaga (miser or skinflint),[5] skromnjaga (excessively modest person), stiljaga (style-hunter, hipster), dokhodjaga (goner, said of Kolyma labor-camp prisoners nearing death)

Spanish

-aco(a), e.g., pajarraco "large ugly bird" (from pájaro "bird)

-ejo(a), e.g., lugarejo "podunk town" (from lugar "place") and librejo "worthless book" (from libro "book"); however, -ejo can also show endearment, as in festejo.

-ote(a), e.g., discursote "long dull speech" (from discurso "speech")(used mostly as an augmentative)

-ucho (a), e.g., casucha "hovel" (from casa "house")

-zuelo (a), e.g., mujerzuela "whore" (from mujer "woman")

References

  1. ↑ "Bill Casselman's Words of the World".
  2. ↑ "Online Etymology Dictionary: -ard".
  3. ↑ Anishinaabemowin
  4. ↑ Tore Nesset "Ideology in inflection"
  5. ↑ Gogol, Nikolai (1980). Gogol: Plays and Selected Writings. Northwestern University Press.