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:
Contents |
Basque
-txo [1]
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.
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 '"playfull" pejorative than others, likely a play on "fascista" which is Italian for "fascist" less likely 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
-目 (-me), e.g. 「化け物目」 (bakemono-me) "That damn monster!" or 「可愛いやつ目」 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"[2]
Provençal
-asso, e.g. vidasso "wretched life" (from vido "life")
Russian
-iška (ишка) [3]
-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
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
