800: chicken, cock and Diminutive Suffixes (-en day 1) Feb 15, 2017

This is the first in a series on the -en suffix to celebrate the 800th post. Make sure to keep up over the next week for the rest.

The majority of suffixes only have one meaning when attached to words, although there are certainly exceptions, such as '-s' (Functions of -s). '-en' is another case which can be added for a number of different effects, though some are only for certain words. One of these uses is to create diminutives of nouns such as 'chicken', and 'maiden', dating back to Old English. In the case of 'chicken', this is not to say the word is a diminutive of 'chick', as this may appear linguistically at first, though of course not logically. Instead, this term comes from the Old English 'cīcen, cȳcen', and is related to the Dutch, 'kieken', and the German, 'Küchlein' which both have diminutive suffixes of their own, and probably comes from the Old English, 'cocc', meaning 'cock, rooster'. This was later reinforced in Middle English by the Old French 'coq', which you can see more about here: The origins of 'coquette'.