DIMINUTIVE (Fr. diminutif, ML, diniinn liens• from Lat. deininntieus, diminutive. front p.p. of dentin acre, to lessen). A of words. chiefly of substantives, in which the primitive notion has beecane lessened or di as linnet: = o little hill. With little ness is associated the idea of neatness, and also of protection; hence diminutives are used as terms of endearment : sometimes they im ply contempt. There is perhaps no lan,gnage with out diminutives: and the most common method of formatic.n is the addition of a syllable. The commonest of the English diminutive affixes are ock, kin. 1. or le, which are of ffermanie and or let, of classical origin: as in bnItriek. lambkin, rail (little eorn), loner!. The ter nihmlion ling, or rather ing, was originally pat ronymic.
Diminutives inter Ut20111' ut props ; Ptelin is the di•inutite of Jtakin of John,. T1oLse have settled down into permanent and distinct names; but in the Luigi'. ge of fondness and fan Warily, harks become, t hart. y; .1011,1, J01,11141 in 1.0WhIld this Imrtu „f diulinutise is not confined. to proper nano s, but is applied to very animate or inanimate lir, firic. 001 diminutive affix is joined to another. as (as sort:, ; and exprcs'lons like "A wee, err hit borxikie," the diminution is carried to the lifth degree. It is principally in the inouths
of the people and in friendly familiarity (Ina, these diminutive forms are is remarkable in this respect, especially the Ts• can lath 4.1. 1 as,, house, liecol.les little house. and ,'assn Hoot, pretty little house: from fratcllo, brother, which is itself a diminutive of the Latin r, •likir, n, it is said. may Is hear forming such fond names as fratellinac•iettim The uiticruuo of the Uerinans expresses itself la rg, lv in this form: rater, father, becomes ea terehen, dear 1.1 t her ; and even (i a, I lion. is made into duck, S, use of the Low t:crinandia leas are even richer than t;ernian in (Unlined iNe,-7 are not confined to nouns; tc/i ills/ is the diminutive of the adjective whit, ; and tipple, scribbb, dandle, arc examples of diminu tive to diminutive' are meld atives, which abound in the Romanic lan guages. especially in Italian and Spanish, and ex not only largeness. but coarseness and vul garity: casotta, in Italian, a liege house; cora/. taccio, a worthless house: liontbrachu, in Spanish (from liontbrc). a fat, robust man.