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One of my favorite suffixes is -ster. Its is a fun tale of misplaced gender and reanalyzed forms. In Old English, -ster was used to form the feminine nomen agentis (person who does X, Xer), but French also had a suffix, -teur to form the masculine nomen agentis, and after French crept into England, -ster was reanalyzed as being masculine, so and -ess was added to yield -stress, as in seamstress, which is actually doubly feminine. Some of these earlier -ster words survive as dialect words or proper names: Baxter (bake), Webster (weave), Dempster (deem, judge), deemster (a title in Scotland). Some of the Old English words died out: lærestre 'female teacher', hoppestre 'female dancer', lybbestre 'female poisoner, witch'. And some great ones from Middle English like bellringstre or throwstre. The suffix is usually used with verbs but it can also be used with nouns, like gangster.
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Pooh-Bah
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So properly speaking Ma Baker would be a gangster not a gangstress. I wonder where -ist came from. I am a therapist not a therapyster. Oh, I think I just answered my own question: Therapy > therapyster > therapister > therapist. Ist only with -y verbs or canst think of others as well?
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And a "spinster" typically had long tresses.
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Well, therapist is a modern coinage, along with the slightly older therapeutist. In Greek, there were two nomina agentis for therapeuo ' to treat medically; serve': therapeutes and therapeuter (with a feminine form therapeutris). Another discussed the -ism / -ist and -asm / -ast suffixes. Intersting that there isn't a therapism. The verb stems from a noun theraps 'a servant or companion'. There is also a theory that it is a loanword from Hittite.
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And let's not forget the huckster.
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and after French crept into England
Crept? Well I suppose so, pretty much in the same way that the shockwave from a nuclear blast creeps across the countryside ...
Or, at least, that's the way it would have seemed to the locals, I daresay!
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Or, at least, that's the way it would have seemed to the locals, I daresay!
Yes, indeed, or to the Romano-Britons when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came, or the Britons when the Romans came, or the dot dot dot, but you get the idea. "There's always a bigger fish." Or an earlier invader.
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I seem to remember reading that there was a conscious effort by the Normans to supplant the Anglo-Saxon language with Norman French from the beginning, especially in the law courts. It was part of the divide and conquer process which Willy the tanner's by-blow from Falaise put into practice so effectively from 1066 onwards. By 1087 the use of French in the courts was more or less mandatory. 20 years is not a long time in linguistic terms!
The Romans, on the other hand, couldn't give a damn about the language issue as long as the local tax farmers kept them cards and letters rollin' in ...
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There's apparently a trend among the younger generation to attach -ster to names (mostly one-syllable, I think), I guess as an affectionate form: jheemster, troyster, juanster, usw.
Any ideas on this?
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A marble player (shooting marbles) is called a mibster, or mibsters.
And this brings to mind the new coinage my high school niece gave me which I mentioned here, scenester.
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Thanks jheem; hadn't read this before....makes me wonder, what about monster then? Surely, it couldn't have applied only to the feminine!!  Girls, bring on the rolling pins! [glowering e]
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The Romans, on the other hand, couldn't give a damn about the language issue as long as the local tax farmers kept them cards and letters rollin' in ...
Yes, ironically, Latin survived in the various Romance languages in most parts of the western half of the empire. Norman held sway in court for a century or so, and then stuck it out in the law courts until the 17th century or so.
I always thought that the Normans ensured that Norman would be used by importing a newish top-down management from the continent.
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There's apparently a trend among the younger generation to attach -ster to names
Reminds me of the annoying SNL character (Rich?) who used to sit by the copy machine giving people silly nicknames -- "Steve!...Steve-o-rama!...The Stevester!... Makin' copies." I don't think he started it though. It has a vaguely 80s feel to it to me.
So, to sum up, I got nothin'.
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No, Maahey, monster is good old-fashioned Latin from monstrum 'evil omen, portent' from monstro 'to point out, show, indicate' from moneo 'to remind, warn, advise'. The Greek word for monster, teras (both nouns are neuter), gives us our prefix for trillions: kilo-, mega-, giga-, tera-, and then comes peta-.
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<i>There's apparently a trend among the younger generation to attach -ster to names (mostly one-syllable, I think), I guess as an affectionate form: jheemster, troyster, juanster, usw.</i>
No, but I like it. Most other (inflected) languages have a bunch of suffixes to use on people's names for hypocoristic reasons. Mostly diminuatives: e.g., Spanish José 'Joseph', Pepe 'Joe', Pepino 'Joey'; Italian Giacomo 'James', Giacomino 'Jim'; French Pierre 'Peter', Pierrot 'Pete'. You can see that this leads to longer names.
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I always thought that the Normans ensured that Norman would be used by importing a newish top-down management from the continent.
In a manner of speaking, yes. When Will-babe's hangers-on carved up the New Territories among them they brought in Norman and French "managers" - mostly clerics - to wring the max moolah out of the long-suffering Anglo-Saxon peasantry. The outcome of that was the English feudal system, of course, but as a precursor they replaced Anglo-Saxon with French and Latin in the local shire and hundreds courts. This ensured that the landlords understood legal proceedings even if those being proceeded against didn't ...
There was some balance, though. It suited the Norman overlords to keep many of the traditional rights intact and these were considered when cases were being adjudged. This, eventually, gave rise to the common law as we know and ?love? it.
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Spanish José 'Joseph', Pepe 'Joe', Pepino 'Joey'Pepino is cucumber, nuncle. The name you're looking for here is Pepito. 
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Pepino is cucumber, nuncle. The name you're looking for here is Pepito.
Right you are, Consuelo! I always get Italian Giuseppe 'Joseph', Beppo 'Joe', Beppino 'Joey' mixed up. German also has Jupp and Sepp for 'Joe' in the Rheinland and Bavaria. Names and nicknames are a lot of fun! Onomastics is the study of names.
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Thanks for this new-to-me word, nuncle!
And yes... pepino is "cucumber" in both Spanish and Portuguese; the latter, which usually uses the -nho/a suffix to indicate the (affectionate) diminutive, will sometimes leave it by the wayside if a misunderstanding might occur. So it's also Pepito in Brazilian Portuguese, at least. Not so sure how they deal with it in the Paísinho.
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I had to look it up too, Anna, although I have the feeling it's been used here before. (Just Searched--yep, it has; Dr. Bill's given the def. at least twice!) Gurunet gives:
hy·poc·o·rism (hī-pŏk'ə-rĭz'əm, hī'pə-kôr'ĭz'əm, -kōr'-)
n.
1. A name of endearment; a pet name.
2. The use of such names.
[Late Latin hypocorisma, from Greek hupokorisma, from hupokorizesthai, to call by endearing names : hypo-, beneath, secretly; see hypo– + korizesthai, to caress (from koros, boyor korē, girl).]
The etymology given made me wonder if charisma is related.
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Pepino comes from Latin pepo, peponis 'large melon, pumpkin'. Besides the diminutive suffix -ito, there's the augmentative suffixes (usually with pejorative meaning) -on, -ote, and -azo. There must be similar ones in Portuguese.
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The etymology given made me wonder if charisma is related.
No, Gk kharisma 'divine favor' (cf. eucharist, and modern Gk eukharisto 'thanks') is ultimately from the PIE root *gher- which also gives us English yearn, while koros 'boy' is from the root *ker- 'to grow' which gives Latin Ceres 'goddess of grain' (whence Spanish cerveza and cereal) and cresco 'to grow, wax' (crescent) from creo 'to bring forth, create'.
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Thanks, AnnaStrophic. Could you give me a couple, three, words that use these suffixes? How productive are they?
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> used here before […]made me wonder if charisma is related
hah, it’ s certainly been used here before in a caraismatic way! :)
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Yeh, I saw that one...but it didn't give me cardeaic arrest.
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In Brazilian soccer there is a tendency for players to use either a nickname or just their first name: Pele, Leonardo, Ronaldo. Younger players pay respect to their idols by adopting a diminutive version of their name: Leonardinho, Ronaldino. No Pelinho that I've heard of yet, perhaps a bit too cheeky for even the most brazen youngster.
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For special credit, Doug: do you know how to pronounce the "-inho"?
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