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 derogatorily belittle something or someone. A diminutive form ( abbreviated DIM ) is a word-formation device used to express such meanings. A double diminutive is a diminutive form with two diminutive suffixes rather than one.
14-648: Mary Catherine Gunning Colum ( née Maguire ; 13 June 1884 – 22 October 1957) was an Irish literary critic and author, who also co-founded a literary journal. Mary Catherine Gunning Maguire was born in Collooney , County Sligo , the daughter of Charles Maguire and Catherine (Gunning) Maguire. Her mother died in 1895, leaving her to be reared by her grandmother, also named Catherine, in Ballisodare , County Sligo. She attended boarding school at St Louis' Convent, Monaghan . Educated at Royal University, Trinity she
28-577: A man's surname at birth that has subsequently been replaced or changed. The diacritic mark (the acute accent ) over the e is considered significant to its spelling, and ultimately its meaning, but is sometimes omitted. According to Oxford University 's Dictionary of Modern English Usage , the terms are typically placed after the current surname (e.g., " Margaret Thatcher , née Roberts" or " Bill Clinton , né Blythe"). Since they are terms adopted into English (from French), they do not have to be italicized , but they often are. In Polish tradition ,
42-524: A pejorative sense to denote that someone or something is weak or childish. For example, one of the last Western Roman emperors was Romulus Augustus , but his name was diminutivized to "Romulus Augustulus" to express his powerlessness. In many languages, diminutives are word forms that are formed from the root word by affixation . In most languages, diminutives can also be formed as multi-word constructions such as " Tiny Tim ", or "Little Dorrit". In most languages that form diminutives by affixation, this
56-502: Is a productive part of the language. For example, in Spanish gordo can be a nickname for someone who is overweight, and by adding an -ito suffix, it becomes gordito which is more affectionate. Examples for a double diminutive having two diminutive suffixes are in Polish dzwon → dzwonek → dzwoneczek or Italian casa → casetta → casettina ). In English,
70-416: Is the feminine past participle of naître , which means "to be born". Né is the masculine form. The term née , having feminine grammatical gender , can be used to denote a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed. In most English-speaking cultures, it is specifically applied to a woman's maiden name after her surname has changed due to marriage. The term né can be used to denote
84-532: The Saturday Review of Literature in 1941. A work of reminiscence "Our Friend James Joyce (1959)", written by herself and her husband, each writing various chapters, and assembled posthumously by Padraic Colum, sensitively recalls the writer; her letters are held in Scribner's Archive, Princeton University Library , while a collection of her papers is held at SUNY . She was the author of several books, including
98-960: The alteration of meaning is often conveyed through clipping , making the words shorter and more colloquial . Diminutives formed by adding affixes in other languages are often longer and (as colloquial) not necessarily understood. While many languages apply a grammatical diminutive to nouns , a few – including Slovak, Dutch , Spanish , Romanian , Latin , Polish , Bulgarian , Czech , Russian and Estonian – also use it for adjectives (in Polish: słodki → słodziutki → słodziuteńki ) and even other parts of speech (Ukrainian спати → спатки → спатоньки — to sleep or Slovak spať → spinkať → spinuškať — to sleep, bežať → bežkať — to run). Diminutives in isolating languages may grammaticalize strategies other than suffixes or prefixes. In Mandarin Chinese , for example, other than
112-486: The autobiographical Life and the Dream , and From These Roots , a collection of her criticism. Birth name#Maiden and married names A birth name is the name given to a person upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname , the given name , or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become
126-878: The magazine for some months of its four-year career. She was encouraged by Yeats to specialise in French literary criticism and to translate Paul Claudel . She married Padraic Colum in July 1912, and they moved to New York in 1914, living occasionally in London and Paris . In middle age she was encouraged to return to writing, and became established as a literary generalist in American journals, including Poetry , Scribner's , The Nation , The New Republic , New York Times Review of Books , and The Tribune . She associated with James Joyce in Paris, and discouraged him from duping enquirers about
140-415: The nominal prefix 小- xiǎo- and nominal suffixes -儿/-兒 -r and -子 -zi , reduplication is a productive strategy, e.g., 舅 → 舅舅 and 看 → 看看 . In formal Mandarin usage, the use of diminutives is relatively infrequent, as they tend to be considered to be rather colloquial than formal. Some Wu Chinese dialects use a tonal affix for nominal diminutives; that is, diminutives are formed by changing
154-536: The origins of the interior monologue in the example of Edouard Dujardin. She accepted Joyce's very ill daughter Lucia for a week in their Paris flat at the height of her 'hebephrenic' attack, while herself preparing for an operation in May 1932. She served as the literary editor of The Forum magazine from 1933 to 1941, commenced teaching comparative literature with Padraic at Columbia University in 1941. She rebutted Oliver St. John Gogarty 's intemperate remarks about Joyce in
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#1732876354841168-555: The person's legal name . The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or brit milah ) will persist to adulthood in the normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some reasons for changes of a person's name include middle names , diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents), and gender transition . The French and English-adopted née
182-485: The term z domu (literally meaning "of the house", de domo in Latin ) may be used, with rare exceptions, meaning the same as née . Diminutive Diminutives are often employed as nicknames and pet names when speaking to small children and when expressing extreme tenderness and intimacy to an adult. The opposite of the diminutive form is the augmentative . In some contexts, diminutives are also employed in
196-682: Was founder of the Twilight Literary Society which led her to meet W. B. Yeats . She regularly attended the Abbey Theatre and was a frequent visitor amongst the salons, readings and debates there. After graduation in 1909, she taught with Louise Gavan Duffy at St Ita's (companion school to Patrick Pearse 's St Enda's School ). She was active with Thomas MacDonagh and others in nationalist and cultural causes. She co-founded The Irish Review (1911–14) with David Houston, Thomas MacDonagh, et al. and she and her husband, Padraic Colum, edited
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