Information about Augmentative

An augmentative is a suffix or prefix added to a noun in order to convey the sense of greater intensity, often though not primarily through 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 (e.g. 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 is 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), kamien (stone) 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 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.

In Esperanto, the -eg- suffix is included before the final part-of-speech vowel. For example, domo (house) becomes domego (mansion). See Esperanto vocabulary.

Modern Greek has a variety of augmentative suffixes: -α, -άρα, -αράς, ΄-αρος, -άκλα, -ακλάς, ΄-ακλας.

In Russian there is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, including -ище and -ин for example: дом (the house) домище (big house) домина (huge house). To provide an impression of excessive qualities the suffix -га can be used for example: ветер (the wind) ветрюга (strong wind).

In Interlingua, the suffixes -on and -ion are occasionally used as augmentatives. See also Interlingua grammar.

See also

• Diminutive