Everything about Augmentative totally explained
An
augmentative is a
suffix or
prefix added to a
noun in order to convey the sense of greater intensity, often though not primarily indicating a larger size. It is the
opposite of a
diminutive.
Augmentatives in a few languages
In
Spanish, -o becomes -ón and -a becomes -ona most frequently, but -ote/-ota and -azo/-aza (meaning
-blow) are also commonly seen. Others include -udo/-uda, -aco/-aca, -acho/-acha, -uco/-uca, -ucho/-ucha, -astro/-astra and -ejo/-eja.
More detail at Spanish nouns.
In
Portuguese, the most common augmentatives are the masculine -ão and the feminine -ona, although there are others, less frequently used. Sometimes, the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning (for example a mulher "the woman", o mulherão "the big woman").
In
Italian, -o/-a becomes -one, seen in quite a few
culinary names, such as
minestrone soup (from "minestra") and
provolone cheese (from "provola"),
family names, and other
loanwords, such as
Carton and
cartoon, both from "cartone",
augmentative of
carta,
paper (related to
English card).
In
Romanian there are several augmentative suffixes: -oi/-oaie, -an/-ană etc (masc/fem pairs). As in other languages, a feminine base word may have masculine or feminine forms in the augmentative. Examples:
- casă (f.) -> căsoi (n.), căsoaie (f.)
- piatră (f.) -> pietroi (n.)
- băiat (m.) -> băieţoi (m.)
- băiat (m.) -> băietan (m.)
In
Polish there's a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, for example: żaba (the frog) żabucha (big frog) żabsko (frog we don't like) żabisko (frog we feel pity for) żabula (unwieldy frog for which we feel some sympathy), kamień (stone), kamul/kamol (large stone), dziewczyna (girl) dziewucha (older girl, large girl, or the girl we don't like) etc.
In
German, the only the way to build augmentatives is the rarely used
prefix Un, for instance in Unzahl, Unsumme, Unmenge, Untiefe, Unkraut or Untier. The derived word references a greater and mostly evil or frightening variation of the original word.
Un is more often used for negation.
Modern Greek has a variety of augmentative suffixes: -α, -άρα, -αράς, ΄-αρος, -άκλα, -ακλάς, ΄-ακλας.
In
Russian there's a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, including
-ище and
-ин for example: дом (the house) дом
ище (big house) дом
ина (huge house). To provide an impression of excessive qualities the suffix
-га can be used for example: ветер (the wind) ветрю
га (strong wind).
Augmentatives in Constructed languages
In
Esperanto, the
-eg- suffix is included before the final part-of-speech vowel. For example,
domo (house) becomes
domego (mansion). See
Esperanto vocabulary.
In
Interlingua, the
suffixes -on and
-ion are occasionally used as augmentatives. See also
Interlingua grammar.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Augmentative'.
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