CHAPTER XV.
DIMINUTIVES, AUGMENTATIVES, AND PATRONYMICS.
[§ 337]. Compared with the words lamb, man, and hill, the words lambkin, mannikin, and hillock convey the idea of comparative smallness or diminution. Now, as the word hillock=a little hill differs in form from hill we have in English a series of diminutive forms, or diminutives.
The English diminutives may be arranged according to a variety of principles. Amongst others:
1. According to their form.—The word hillock is derived from hill, by the addition of a syllable. The word tip is derived from top, by the change of a vowel.
2. According to their meaning.—In the word hillock there is the simple expression of comparative smallness in size. In the word doggie for dog, lassie for lass, the addition of the -ie makes the word not so much a diminutive as a term of tenderness or endearment. The idea of smallness, accompanied, perhaps, with that of neatness, generally carries with it the idea of approbation. The word clean in English, means, in German, little=kleine. The feeling of protection which is extended to small objects engenders the notion of endearment. In Middle High German we have vaterlìn=little father, mütterlìn=little mother. In Middle High German there is the diminutive sunnelìn; and the French soleil is from the Latin form solillus. In Slavonic the word slunze=sun is a diminutive form.
The Greek word μείωσις (meiôsis) means diminution; the Greek word ὑποκόρισμα means an endearing expression. Hence we get names for the two kinds of diminutives; viz., the term meiotic for the true diminutives, and the term hypocoristic for the diminutives of endearment.—Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 664.