2839: Cello Sep 28, 2024

The word 'cello' originates as a clipping of the Italian term 'violoncello', which in turn comes from 'violone'. 'Violoncello' translates to "little violone" in Italian, where 'violone' refers to an early form of the double bass. The suffix '-cello' (-elle in Italian) denotes a diminutive form, indicating that the instrument is smaller in size compared to the violone. The term 'violone' itself is derived from 'viola' with the augmentative suffix '-one' (-oon in Italian), emphasizing its larger size compared to the standard viola.

2501: -eroo/-eroonie Oct 17, 2021

We usually think of suffixes as being grammatical in function— like how'-ed' makes something past tense or participial; '-(e)s' makes something plural or signals 3rd person present etc.—but this is not necessary. For example, '-eroo' (or its variants including '-eroonie') as in "the old switcheroo" or "We're going on a tripperoonie". This does not add anything grammatically and arguably doesn't even add anything semantically for the individual word, but it does make the overall sentence more colloquial, jovial, or familiar. In this sense, this is like a diminutive which makes things sound affectionate, or literally small, but is not exactly the same.

2469: -kin, -tje, and Afrikaans 'oke' Sep 15, 2021

The Dutch diminutive suffix -kin (found in English with the borrowed 'mannequin') is highly productive, and its related form '-tje' morphs into different forms. Depending upon the sound of the word it is affixed onto, it can appear as '-je ' before a fricative, '-etje' before a sonorant, '-tje' before long vowels and diphthongs, '-pje' with stressed vowel or before [m], or '-kje' before '-ng', though then this becomes '-nkje'; some of these can appear as simply '-ie' in slang. Further, in Afrikaans slang, 'ou' (i.e. 'old') took the diminutive form 'outjie' but was reduced as 'oke' in modern slang meaning 'guy; dude; bro'. This is therefore unrelated to 'bloke' of English slang, despite similar sound and meaning.