augmentative

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An augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size, but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive.

Since overaugmenting something often makes it grotesque, in some languages augmentatives are used primarily for comical effect or as pejoratives.

Many languages have augmentatives for nouns; some have augmentatives for verbs.

Germanic languages

English

In modern English, augmentatives are usually created with the prefix super- (such as supermarket and Superman.) Since the early 1990's, the prefix über- has also rarely been used as a borrowing from German.

German

In German, there are different ways to build augmentatives. They are rarely used prefixes:

• Un-, for instance in Unzahl, Unsumme, Unmenge, Untiefe.
  Un- is more often used for negation (eg. Unglück, Unsinn).
  This leads sometimes to confusion: Untiefe wasser can mean either very deep or shallow water.

• Aber-, for instance Abertausend

Hellenic languages

Greek

Modern Greek has a variety of augmentative suffixes: -α, -άρα, -αράς, ΄-αρος, -άκλα, -ακλάς, ΄-ακλας.

Latin and Romance languages

Italian

In Italian, -o/-a becomes -one, seen in quite a few culinary names, such as minestrone soup (from "minestra") and provolone cheese (from "provola"), family names, and other loanwords, such as Carton and cartoon, both from "cartone", augmentative of carta, paper (related to English card).

Portuguese

In Portuguese, the most common augmentatives are the masculine -ão (sometimes also -zão or -zarrão) and the feminine -ona (or -zona), although there are others, less frequently used. E.g. carro "car", carrão "big car"; homem "man", homenzarrão "big man"; mulher "woman", mulherona "big woman".

Sometimes, especially in Brazilian Portuguese, the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning (e.g. "o mulherão" instead of "a mulherona" for "the big woman"); however, such cases usually imply subtle meaning twists, mostly with a somewhat gross or vulgar undertone (which, nonetheless, is often intentional, for the sake of wit, malice or otherwise; so, mulherão actually means not a big woman, but a particularly sexy one).

Romanian

In Romanian there are several augmentative suffixes: -oi/-oaie, -an/-ană etc (masc/fem pairs). As in other languages, a feminine base word may have masculine or feminine forms in the augmentative. Examples:

• casă (f.) -> căsoi (n.), căsoaie (f.)
• piatră (f.) -> pietroi (n.)
• băiat (m.) -> băieţoi (m.)
• băiat (m.) -> băietan (m.)

Spanish

In Spanish, -o becomes -ón and -a becomes -ona most frequently, but -ote/-ota and -azo/-aza (meaning -blow) are also commonly seen. Others include -udo/-uda, -aco/-aca, -acho/-acha, -uco/-uca, -ucho/-ucha, -astro/-astra and -ejo/-eja. More detail at Spanish nouns.

Slavic languages

Bulgarian

In Bulgarian, as in Russian, mainly with -ище.

Polish

In Polish is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, for example: żaba (a frog) żabucha (big frog^{[citation needed]}) żabsko (frog we don't like^{[citation needed]}) żabisko (ugly frog^{[citation needed]}) żabula (unwieldy frog for which we feel some sympathy^{[citation needed]}), kamień (stone), kamulec or kamior (great stone^{[citation needed]}), dziewczyna (girl), dziewucha (older girl, big girl, or the girl we don't like^{[citation needed]}) etc.

Russian

In Russian is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, including -ище and -ин for example: дом (the house) домище (great house) домина (huge house). To provide an impression of excessive qualities the suffix -га can be used for example: ветер (the wind), ветрюга (strong wind).

Serbian and Croatian

In Serbian and Croatian is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, most commonly with -ina.

Semitic languages

Arabic

Form II of the Arabic verb often has an augmentative sense, which may indicate intensity (intensive) or repetition (frequentative).^[1]

International auxiliary languages

Esperanto

In Esperanto, the -eg- suffix is included before the final part-of-speech vowel. For example, domo (house) becomes domego (mansion). See Esperanto vocabulary.

Interlingua

In Interlingua, the suffixes -on and -ion are occasionally used as augmentatives. See also Interlingua grammar.

Notes

1. ^ Mark W. Cowell, A Reference Grammar of Syrian Arabic. Georgetown University Press, 2005. ISBN 1589010515. p. 253

See also

• Diminutive