Diminutives
Many languages have diminutives.
Bonnie Mills, Writing for
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Diminutives
Today’s episode is about diminutives. Words like doggie, first names like Bill, and pet names like sweetie pie are examples. Diminutives indicate an item is smaller than something else, for example, or are used to show affection between partners or toward children or pets. In other situations, using a diminutive or pet name might be considered inappropriate. Keep listening to find out when you shouldn’t use a diminutive.
What Are Diminutives?
The word diminutive means “small,” and diminutives often express smallness. A piglet, for example, is smaller than a pig, and a cigarette is shorter and narrower than a cigar. In English, you often create a diminutive by adding a suffix. Common diminutive suffixes include -y and -ie, which are pronounced the same, (1) -let and -kin (2), and -ock and -sie. (3) Diminutives made with these suffixes include Billy, coverlet, munchkin, hillock, and onesie. Many diminutive words in English originate from French and use the diminutive suffixes -et and -ette. A short list is islet, tablet, and midget with the -et suffix (4) and suffragette, majorette, kitchenette, and coquette with the -ette suffix. (5)
Another way to form diminutives is to chop off the end of a word in casual speech. Television turns into the telly if you’re in Britain. You can use the barbie, from barbecue, in Australia. You can be anywhere when you say bike instead of bicycle or auto in place of automobile.
Rhyming Nicknames
Diminutives are for people’s names as well as for everyday words. The most common diminutive first names in English are simply shortened forms of the original name, often the first syllable or sound, as in Deb for Deborah or Mike for Michael. (6) Other shortened names originate from the middle or end of the name, as in Beth for Elizabeth or Drew for Andrew. Rhyming nicknames also crop up a lot. Men named Robert used to “be known as Rob, Hob, Dob or Nob.” (7) Interestingly, although Hob, Dob, and Nob are no longer used this way, we do have last names related to these nicknames, such as Hobson and Dobson. And, of course, Bob rhymes with Rob. We also have Bill and Will for William, and Rick and Dick for Richard.
Pronunciation Trouble Leads to Diminutives
Yet other first names originated because of problems individuals once had or currently have with pronunciation, especially children. For instance, “the difficult Norman r sound in medieval English names was often dropped … or changed … Likewise, the th sound was often changed.” (8) Examples are Babs for Barbara, Molly for Mary, and Dot for Dorothy. In addition, young children might have problems pronouncing an older sibling’s name. Two real-world examples that come to mind are Suh-Suh for Samantha and Mo for Samara. How cute!
As previously mentioned, the -y and -ie suffixes commonly create diminutives, and there are countless first names with these suffixes. A line from the film Good Will Hunting illustrates how common such names are. The character Will (undoubtedly short for William) is trying to impress a woman in a bar and rattles off the names of his 12 fake brothers: “Marky, Ricky, Danny, Terry, Mikey, Davey, Timmy, Tommy, Joey, Robby, Johnny, and Brian.” (9) This pretend Brian is an exception here, though if he were real, his siblings would likely nickname him Bri. Girls’ names ending in -y or -ie are also abundant, as in Sally, Becky, Millie, Minnie, Evie, and Connie. Connie is often short for Constance, although Bonnie is definitely not short for Bonstance, as someone once asked this Bonnie. Oh the horror!
Foreign Diminutives
English isn’t the only language to use diminutives, especially in names. Let’s cover just a few other languages. In Italian, we have -ino, -ina, -etto, and -etta as in Giorgino and Simonetta. The French have several diminutive suffixes, such as the already-mentioned -ette as well as -ine, -on, -ot, and -otte, which give us names like Jeannette, Manon, and Margot. Other foreign diminutive suffixes include -sha and -ya in Russian, and so you’ll hear Misha for Mikhail and Kolya for Nikolai; -ito and -ita in Spanish, which yield names like Carlito and Juanita; and -in and -an in Irish, leading to Kevin and Aidan. (10)
What Is Hypocorism?
As we’ve said, diminutives can indicate “tenderness, love, endearment, or familiarity” (11) and there’s even a fancy word for it: hypocorism. This means “a pet name,” “the practice of using a pet name,” or “the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, especially by an adult.” (12) Interestingly, Ned is an example of a name that originates from affection. “The medieval affectionate name mine Ed(ward) … was later reinterpreted as my Ned” (13). Other examples formed this way are Nancy (from mine Anne, which first turned into Nan) and Nell (from mine Ellen).
Which listeners admit to talking to a beloved pet in a high-pitched voice and maybe calling it something like sweetie cakes? Or perhaps you’re the parent of a boy named Timothy and you shorten it to Tim and then sometimes Timmy. We’ve all done it. It’s even more likely you’ve used a pet name in a romantic relationship. An interesting Scientific American blog post discusses various studies that have analyzed relationship satisfaction and pet names. The blog quotes one study author as saying, “Names like honey, baby, babe, sweetheart (etc.) connote a special intimacy that’s reserved for your significant other … Most couples tell me they’re shocked or know something is wrong in the relationship when a partner actually calls them by their actual name and not their nickname.” (14)
Romance must be delicious because many pet names, both in English and other languages, are also names of sweet foods. For example, in France, your significant other might call you mon petit chou, which means “my little cabbage or cream puff”; in Russia, you might hear vishenka, which means “cherry”; and in the Netherlands, your boyfriend could call you dropje, which means “candy.” (15)
When Are Pet Names and Diminutive Inappropriate?
In several situations, you should probably refrain from using a pet name or a diminutive. Many parents call their children by a diminutive, such as Ricky and Annie. What’s fine for a two-year-old, however, is not necessarily OK for older offspring. As the children get closer to adulthood, they may prefer to sound more grown up and want to be known by their full name. Parents certainly should not address their six-foot-tall adult son as Jakey-Poo in public, or maybe even in private, especially if he requests that Mom and Dad stop calling him that. Other privately used monikers such as studmuffin should also stay private. If you let that slip in front of others, especially in front of a boss, a waiter, or his parents, the man in your life will likely be rightfully angry or embarrassed.
You might be surprised to learn that diminutives can be used for evil as well as good. One style guide states that “a diminutive is a word or name that indicates smallness, youth, familiarity, affection, or contempt.” (16) Some women, for example, object to the use of honey and other diminutive names. They feel that these words are condescending, and they request that their significant others not use them. In addition, as women have increasingly pressed for gender equality, they have spoken up about the sometime male habit of calling them by pet names that seem to place them on a lower rung, especially at work. There’s a famous scene in the 1982 movie Tootsie, where Dustin Hoffman’s character pretends to be a woman so he can get acting work. He becomes Dorothy Michaels, and she says to a man who has been demeaning her at work, “I have a name. It’s Dorothy. It’s not Tootsie or Toots or Sweetie or Honey or Doll.” Upon hearing this, the man she’s speaking to swears, and so she continues: “No, just Dorothy. Alan’s always Alan, Tom’s always Tom and John’s always John. I have a name too. It’s Dorothy, capital D-O-R-O-T-H-Y.” (17) You go, girl!
And so, if you want to call a submarine sandwich a sub, go right ahead; no one will complain. But if you’re addressing a person with something other than a full first name, make sure he or she is cool with it.
This segment was written by Bonnie Mills, who blogs at sentencesleuth.blogspot.com and is the author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier.
References
1. Transparent Language blog, “Using the Diminutive in English,” https://blogs.transparent.com/english/using-the-diminutive-in-english/. Accessed July 6, 2015.
2. American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005, p.141.
3. Language Learning Base, “Diminutive Suffixes in English,” https://languagelearningbase.com/87803/diminutive-suffixes-in-english. Accessed July 6, 2015.
4. Dictionary.com, “-et,” https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-et. Accessed July 6, 2015.
5. Dictionary.com, “-ette,” https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-ette. Accessed July 6, 2015.
6. Behind the Name, “Diminutive,” https://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/diminutive. Accessed July 6, 2015.
7. Behind the Name, “Diminutive,” https://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/diminutive. Accessed July 6, 2015.
8. Behind the Name, “Diminutive,” https://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/diminutive. Accessed July 6, 2015.
9. IMDB, “Good Will Hunting: Quotes,” https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/quotes?qt=qt0408128. Accessed July 7, 2015.
10. Behind the Name, “Diminutive,” https://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/diminutive. Accessed July 6, 2015.
11. Transparent Language blog, “Using the Diminutive in English,” https://blogs.transparent.com/english/using-the-diminutive-in-english/. Accessed July 6, 2015.
12. Dictionary.com, “Hypocorism,” https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypocorism. Accessed July 7, 2015.
13. Behind the Name, “Diminutive,” https://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/diminutive. Accessed July 6, 2015.
14. Scientific American MIND Guest Blog, “Terms of Endearment: Why Do We Use Pet Names in Relationships?” https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/why-do-we-use-pet-names-in-relationships/. Accessed July 6, 2015.
15. Scientific American MIND Guest Blog, “Terms of Endearment: Why Do We Use Pet Names in Relationships?” https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/why-do-we-use-pet-names-in-relationships/. Accessed July 6, 2015.
16. American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005, p.141.
17. IMDB, “Tootsie: Quotes,” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084805/quotes. Accessed July 7, 2015.