Hypocorism

Origins and usage

Etymologically, the term hypocorism is from Ancient Greek {{wikt-lang|grc|ὑποκόρισμα}} (hypokórisma), from {{wikt-lang|grc|ὑποκορίζεσθαι}} (hypokorízesthai), meaning 'to call by endearing names'. The prefix hypo- refers in this case to creating a diminutive, something that is smaller in a tender or affectionate sense; the root korízesthai originates in the Greek for 'to caress' or 'to treat with tokens of affection', and is related to the words {{wikt-lang|grc|κόρος}} (kóros) 'boy, youth' and {{wikt-lang|grc|κόρη}} (kórē) 'girl, young woman'.

In linguistics, the term can be used more specifically to refer to the morphological process by which the standard form of the word is transformed into a form denoting affection, or to words resulting from this process. In English, a word is often clipped down to a closed monosyllable and then suffixed with ‑y or ‑ie (phonologically ). Sometimes the suffix -o is included as well as other forms or templates.

References

References

1. "hypocorism".
2. "pet name".
3. (2015). "Linguistics: An Introduction". Bloomsbury.
4. (9 March 2021). "Gatho, lippy, rego — why Australians love hypocoristics".
5. Simpson, Jane. (2008). "The Pacific and Australasia". Mouton de Gruyter.
6. (1995). "Spanish hypocoristics: towards a unified prosodic analysis". Hispanic Linguistics.
7. (2001). "Arabic Hypocoristics and the Status of the Consonantal Root". The MIT Press.