In the words in point we must assume an earlier form, cocker and piker, to which the diminutive form -el is affixed. If this be true, we have, in English, representatives of the diminutive form -l, so common in the High Germanic dialects. Wolfer=a wolf, hunker=a haunch, flitcher=a flitch, teamer=a team, fresher=a frog,—these are north country forms of the present English.[[43]]
The termination -let, as in streamlet, seems to be double, and to consist of the Gothic diminutive -l, and the French diminutive -t.
[§ 339]. Augmentatives.—Compared with capello=a hat, the Italian word capellone=a great hat is an augmentative. The augmentative forms, pre-eminently common in the Italian language, often carry with them a depreciating sense.
The termination -rd (in Old High German, -hart), as in drunkard, braggart, laggard, stinkard, carries with it this idea of depreciation. In buzzard, and reynard, the name of the fox, it is simply augmentative. In wizard, from witch, it has the power of a masculine form.
The termination -rd, taken from the Gothic, appears in
the modern languages of classical origin: French, vieillard; Spanish, codardo. From these we get at, second-hand, the word coward.—Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 707.
The word sweetheart is a derived word of this sort, rather than a compound word; since in Old High German and Middle High German, we have the corresponding form liebhart. Now the form for heart is in German not hart, but herz.
Words like braggadocio, trombone, balloon, being words of foreign origin, prove nothing as to the further existence of augmentative forms in English.
[§ 340]. Patronymics.—In the Greek language the notion of lineal descent, in other words, the relation of the son to the father, is expressed by a particular termination; as, Πηλεὺς (Peleus), Πηλείδης (Peleidæs), the son of Peleus. It is very evident that this mode of expression is very different from either the English form Johnson, or Gaelic MacDonald. In these last-named words, the words son and Mac mean the same thing; so that Johnson and MacDonald are not derived, but compound words. This Greek way of expressing descent is peculiar, and the words wherein it occurs are classed together by the peculiar name patronymic, from patær=a father, and onoma=a name. Is there anything in English corresponding to the Greek patronymics? It was for the sake of this question that the consideration of the termination -ling, as in duckling, &c., was deferred.
The termination -ling, like the terminations -rel and -let, is compound. Its simpler form is -ing. This, from being affixed to the derived forms in -l, has become -ling.