A hypocorism ( or ; from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
; sometimes also ''hypocoristic''), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a
diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
form of a person's name, such as ''
Izzy'' for Isabel or ''
Bob'' for Robert, or it may be unrelated.
Origins and usage
Etymologically, the term ''hypocorism'' is from Ancient Greek (), from (), meaning 'to call by endearing names'. The prefix refers in this case to creating a diminutive, something that is smaller in a tender or affectionate sense; the root originates in the Greek for 'to caress' or 'to treat with tokens of affection', and is related to the words () 'boy, youth' and () 'girl, young woman'.
In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, 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
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
ed with ''‑y'' or ''‑ie'' (phonologically ). Sometimes the suffix ''-o'' is included as well as other forms
or templates.
See also
*
Nickname
A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...
*
Term of endearment
References
{{Authority control
Nicknames
Rhetorical techniques