 This week we’ll consider a few diminutives — suffixes that make things small (though some of these suffixes do all sorts of other things, too).
-y or -ie get thrown onto the end of many names. Meet Frannie, Timmy, Ollie, Joey, Rosie & Sadie. . It also works with common nouns: puppy, kitty, sweetie, bunny, & matey. -ling gets employed in a simlary manner: darling, hatchling, duckling, & underling. -ella or -ello are also diminutives: Cinderella, bordello, salmonella, & novella. -el shows up in chapel, tunnel, gravel & gunnel. -et or -ette appear in kitchenette, cigarette, wallet, & faucet. -ine shows up in magazine, figurine, tambourine, & even linguine. -ina, -ino, & -ini diminutize palomino, marina, & zuchini. -kin gives us napkin, mannequin (originally spelled manikin) & bumpkin. -let or lette appear in booklet, omelette, hamlet, & roulette. Dear readers — if someone were to dimunituze your name, which of the above options would you appreciate (or tolerate) most? Let me know in the comments section. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Word Hippo, Merriam Webster, Daily Writing Tips, & Dreamstime.
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 Sometimes a prefix is a prefix, and sometimes it’s just masquerading as a prefix. Take ig-.
Sometimes ig- fills in as a substitute for the prefix in- (not, or opposite of): In ignorant, ig- means not & -norant comes from Proto-Indo-European through a Latin word meaning to know. ig- also operates in place of the prefix in- (not, or opposite of) in the words ignoramus, ignore, ignoble, ignominious & the name Ignatius. But in words like igloo, the first two letters aren’t a prefix. English simply borrowed (or stole, depending on one’s world view) this word from Inuit (it means house). The word igneous comes fully formed through Proto-Indo-European and Latin from a word meaning fire. Ignescent, ignite, ignition come from this same root. The noun iguana comes from a Haitian word meaning lizard. And the source of the Pig Latin word igarettesay (or igarettecay) is simple foolishness. Did any of these surprise you? Big thanks for this week’s sources: my 1959 Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Partridge’s Concise Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English, Merriam Webster, Etymonline, the OED, & Adobe.  Recent world events led to this post.
Those who prepare for war get it. -Winifred Holtby Militarism…is one of the chief bulwarks of capitalism, & the day that militarism is undermined, capitalism will fall. -Helen Keller I am not being facetious when I say that the real enemies in this country are the Pentagon and its pals in big business. -Bella Abzug The function of militarism is to kill. It cannot live except through murder. -Emma Goldman If we pursue the arms race no other problem will be solved. -Helen Gahagan Douglas Militarism is the most energy-intensive, entropic activity of humans, since it converts stored energy & materials directly into waste & destruction without any useful intervening fulfillment of basic human needs. Ironically, the net effect of military, as opposed to civilian, expenditures is to increase unemployment & inflation. -Hazel Henderson The Pentagon is the greatest power on earth today…There it sits, a terrible mass of concrete, on our minds, on our hearts, squat on top of our lives. Its power penetrates into every single life. It is in the very air we breathe. The water we drink. Because of its insatiable demands we are drained & we are polluted. -Josephine W. Johnson The pathos of it all is that the America which is to be protected by a huge military force is not the America of the people, but that of the privileged class. -Emma Goldman Did any of these quotes or their sources surprise you? Thanks to this week’s sources: A-Z Quotes, Wise Famous Quotes, Quotations by Women, The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women, & Get Drawings.  April 23 is recognized as William Shakespeare’s birthday (since we don’t really know when he was born, so why not celebrate his birth on the day he died?). So here are some of the many words or phrases he is credited with coining. Bedazzled, blinded by excessive light, appeared in The Taming of the Shrew. Heart’s content, as much as one wishes, came from Henry VI. Star-crossed lovers, ill-fated lovers, appeared (where else?) in Romeo & Juliet. Undress, to remove one’s clothing, showed up in The Taming of the Shrew. Brave new world, a future situation or development, showed up in The Tempest. Swagger, to strut in a defiant or insolent manner, appeared in Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, & Henry IV. Eyeball, the globe of the eye, appeared in The Tempest. A plague on both your houses, a curse of frustration, appeared in Romeo & Juliet. At one fell swoop, all at once, showed up in Macbeth. Fancy free, free from the trammels of love, appeaered in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Wear your heart on your sleeve, to make one’s feelings obvious, was introduced in Othello. To thine own self be true, be honest with yourself, was introduced in Hamlet. May it be easy for you to follow Polonius’s advice, & to thine own self be true. Thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, Etymonline, the OED, EF Edu, Phrase Finder, & Stefanie Matulat.  Here’s the first paragraph of Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Long Rain.”
The rain continued. It was a hard rain, a perpetual rain, a sweating and steaming rain; it was a mizzle, a downpour, a fountain, a whipping at the eyes, an undertow at the ankles; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains. It came by the pound and by the ton, it hacked at the jungle and cut the trees like scissors and shaved the grass and tunneled the soil and molted the bushes. It shrank men’s hands into the hands of wrinkled apes; it rained a solid glassy rain and it never stopped. Wow. Modern editors might blanch at the semi-colons and suggest the prose is a bit purple, but wow. That is one seroius rain. And here are some etymologies of selected words from the passage. Fountain appeared in English in the early 1400s from an Old French word meaning natural spring. The French word came from Medieval Latin, & that word started out as a Proto-Indo-European meaning to run or flow. Drown came to us about the same time, most likely from an Old English maritime word meaning to be swallowed up by water. Or possibly from an Old Norse word meaning be drowned. Even as you read, hard working etymologists are working to solve which source is true. Hacked showed up in Old English in the 1100s, from a word meaning hack to pieces. It comes from West Germanic languages & may have been influenced by an Old Norse term meaning to hew, cut, strike, or smite. What’s the deal with northern Europeans & smiting, anyway? Jungle came to English in the 1700s from a Hindi word meaning uncultivated ground. The Hindi word came from a Sanskrit word meaning sparsely grown with trees, arid. Hmm. Cultural understanding (or lack thereof) must have contributed to that one. Scissors appeared in English in the 1300s from an Old French word meaning shears. That word came from Latin through Vulgar Latin. Back in the 1840s, oh scissors! was used as a euphemism when someone was impatient or disgusted. In wrestling, scissorhold, leg scissor, & head scissor have been used since 1904. In swimming, scissor kick has been in use since 1902. The noun tunnel showed up in the 1400s from an Old French word meaning net. In English it added the meaning tube or pipe in the 1500s, and by the 1600s it added the meaning underground passage. And wrinkle came to English in about 1400 from the Old English word gewrinclod, which meant wrinkled, crooked or winding. It comes from a Proto-Germanic verb meaning to wind. Thanks for joining me on these etymological ponderings. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Bradbury Classic Stories 1, Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, Etymonline, & howtodrawforkids.com.  Slang words can be beautiful things. They can also be tasteless, tacky, &/or rude. Here’s a small selection of family-friendly slang terms I haven’t previously run into. I hope you enjoy them.
A sea-flea is a very fast motorboat that skips & bounces over the surface of the sea. It’s a Canadian term that appeared in 1950s. Geary is an adjective meaning fashionably stylish. Geary showed up in America in the late 1900s. Ratbaggery is a noun that appeared in Australia in the 1930s, meaning a display of eccentricity. Right fanny comes from 1925. It’s a noun meaning pathetic story. Blear is a verb meaning to stroll. It comes from Cambridge student-speak in the 1920s. The mid-1900s gave us the noun scrumpy rat, meaning habitual drunkard. Gen kiddy is a noun referring to a thoroughly good chap. The term was born in the 1950s among Royal Air Force members. And sheep-wash is an Australian/New Zealander term for poor quality liquor. I’d love to hear whether these terms were new for you. Comment away! Big thanks to this week’s sources: Collins Dictionary, Partridge’s Concise Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English, the OED & Hello Artsy.  This week let’s take a look at nouns containing ump. Bump came to us in the 1500s meaning a protuberance caused by a blow. It came from an earlier verb which meant to strike violently. It is likely from a Scandinavian source, & is also likely onomatopoieic. Lump showed up in English in the 1300s meaning a small mass of irregularly shaped material. Its source is unknown, though it may come from Danish, Dutch, or some other Germanic tongue. Jump is another noun of uncertain origin. It showed up in the 1500s meaning spring from the ground. Though nobody’s sure, it may have come from Swedish, French, German, or Old English. Grump appeared in the 1700s meaning surly remarks. By 1900 it also meant a person in ill humor. Though etymologists haven’t nailed it down, it most likely came from a Danish word meaning cruel. Pump may have come to us in the 1400s from a Dutch word meaning water, conduit, or pipe. Or possibly from Middle Low German, or maybe even from an onomatopoeic word North Sea sailors used to imitate the sound of a plunger. Clump didn’t show up until the late 1500s, used first to identify a group of shrubs of trees, meaning a cluster. It came from a Germanic source. Frump started out meaning a mocking speech, sneer, or snort when it showed up in English in the 1500s. By the later 1500 it grew into a verb meaning to mock, flaunt, or taunt, & by the mid-1600s grew back into a noun meaning a cross-tempered, unstylish person. And then there’s umpire, meaning arbitrator, mediator, or one who decides when others are in disagreement. Umpire came from a French word meaning odd number, as the mediator was often the third in a dispute between two. May all your umps be good umps. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, the OED, Etymonline, Collins Dictionary, & LooneyTunesCaps.  The word ego gets a lot of use, so here’s a bit of background on ego, along with a list of its cousins.
Ego showed up in English in the early 1700s in the field of metaphysics, meaning that which feels, acts, or thinks; the self. It came from the Latin word for I. The word ego got applied in psychoanalysis in the 1800s meaning the organized, conscious mediator between a person & reality. And by 1891 it began to mean conceit or self-aggrandizement. Some ego-related words & terms include: ego trip ego tripper egocentric egocentricity egoism egoist egomania egomaniac egosurfing egotism, egotize alter ego super ego egotheism May your ego successfully consciously mediate between you & reality. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, the OED, Etymonline, Pride, A Dictionary for the Vain, & Vecteezy.  Idioms can be so darned funny, especially when appreciated in a concentrated form. Here’s a pile of idioms that all begin with the word look. To appreciate them best, read them aloud somewhat speedily. I hope they’ll bring a smile.
Look high & low for something Look for trouble Look like a million bucks Look forward to something Look back on something Look down on something Look down one’s nose at someone Look at someone cross-eyed Look in on someone Look out for someone Look someone in the eye Look someone over Look over someone Look up to someone Look like a million dollars Look the other way Look like the cat that swallowed the canary Look like something the cat dragged in Look as if butter wouldn’t melt in one’s mouth Thanks for coming by & joining me in my appreciation of idioms. If any other look idioms come to mind, please add them in the comments. Big thanks to this week’s sources: NTC’s American Idioms Dictionary, The Idioms, Rosetta Stone, & Qaqooking.  Consider this quote:
“The higher they went, the darker it became, though it wasn’t the darkness of night, but rather more like a mixture of lurking shadows & evil intentions which oozed from the slimy, moss-covered cliffs & blotted out the light. A cruel wind shrieked through the rocks & the air was thick & heavy, as if it had been used several times before.” This was written by Norton Juster in his classic middle grade novel, The Phantom Tollbooth. I think it’s rather brilliant. Let’s take a look at the origin of some selected words from the passage. Lurking comes from lurk, which showed up in English in the 1300s from a Scandinavian source. It originally meant to hide or lie hidden, but since the late 1300s has meant to move about secretly or to escape observation. Oozed (the past tense of ooze) came to English from early Germanic tongues. Over the years ooze & its kin have had the meanings to flow as ooze, to percolate through pores, to emit in the shape of moisture, plus the nouns juice, & sap. Slimy comes from the word slime, which originated in Proto-Indo-European and came through Germanic languages to English. Along the way it’s had the meanings viscous, sticky, phlegmy, slippery, snail-like, smooth, miry, & muddy. Moss started out as a Proto-Indo-European word meaning damp. That original word not only grew into our word moss, but also grew into the words mucus, must, & musty, & the Lithuanian word for mold. Blotted is the past tense of blot, which is a bit of a mystery. It may have come from an Old French word meaning boil (the boil on one's skin sort of boil), or perhaps it came from an Old Norse word meaning stain. But have no fear; hard-working etymologists continue to duke it out over the source of blot & they are bound to have an answer at some point in the future. Heavy comes from Proto-Indo-European through Old English. It originally comes from a word meaning to grasp, which morphed in time to mean something having weight, then oozed further to pick up its figurative meanings important, grave, oppresive, slow, & dull. Juster’s word choice really served him well in this passage. May your word choice this week serve you well. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Collins Dictionary, Etymonline, Merriam Webster, the OED, & Jules Feiffer. |
I write for teens & tweens, bake bread, play music, and ponder the wonder of words in a foggy little town on California's central coast.
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