hypocorism
Sign in to saveAlso known as hypocoristic, shortened name, diminutive name, pet name, hypocoristic form, short nickname, diminutive form
A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek ; sometimes also hypocoristic), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as Izzy for Isabel or Bob for Robert, or it may be unrelated.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- nickname
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- Hypocorisms
- different from
- hypocrisy
- topic's main category
- Category:Hypocorisms
- described by source
- Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
- partially coincident with
- childhood nickname
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Origins and usage
- See also
- References
A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek ; sometimes also hypocoristic), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive 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'.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “hypocorism” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.