An augmentative (abbreviated AUG) is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive.
Contents
- English
- Dutch
- German
- Swedish
- Greek
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Spanish
- Bulgarian
- Polish
- Russian
- Serbo Croatian
- Arabic
- Bantu languages
- Chichewa
- Esperanto
- Interlingua
- References
Since overaugmenting something often makes it grotesque, in some languages augmentatives are used primarily for comical effect or as pejoratives.
Many languages have augmentatives for nouns; some have augmentatives for verbs.
English
In modern English, augmentatives can be created with the prefixes:
Since the early 1990s, the prefix über- has also frequently been used as a borrowing from German. The suffix -zilla, expressing a monstrous quality, can also be considered an augmentative form.
Dutch
In modern Dutch, augmentatives are usually created with the prefixes:
There are also prefixes that can be used for some adjectives:
German
In German, there are different ways to build augmentatives. They are rarely used prefixes:
Note: Un- is mostly used for negation (e.g. Unglück, Unsinn), and occasionaly in a pejorative sense (Unwetter, Untier).
Swedish
In Swedish the way to build augmentative is to add one of many prefixes before the word. This can be done on words in most word classes. The most common prefixes are: "jätte-" (giant-), "bauta-", "mega-".
Examples:There are many synonyms to "jätte-" although only when "jätte-" means "very", not big. Some of these synonyms are: "as-", "gör-", "svin-", "skit-" and "ur-" although ,as written above, these doesn't change the size of a noun they just change gul (yellow) to jättegul (very yellow). The use of prefixes to build augmentative is quite colloquial and is seldom used in formal text and speech. Then adjectives and adverbs are used instead.
Greek
Modern Greek has a variety of augmentative suffixes: -α, -άρα, -αράς, ΄-αρος, -άκλα, -ακλάς, ΄-ακλας.
Italian
Italian has several augmentatives:
Portuguese
In Portuguese, the most common augmentatives are the masculine -ão (sometimes also -zão or -zarrão) and the feminine -ona (or -zona), although there are others, less frequently used. E.g. carro "car", carrão "big car"; homem "man", homenzarrão "big man"; mulher "woman", mulherona "big woman".
Sometimes, especially in Brazilian Portuguese, the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning (e.g. "o mulherão" instead of "a mulherona" for "the big woman"); however, such cases usually imply subtle meaning twists, mostly with a somewhat gross or vulgar undertone (which, nonetheless, is often intentional, for the sake of wit, malice or otherwise; so, mulherão actually means not a big woman, but a particularly sexy one).
Romanian
In Romanian there are several augmentative suffixes: -oi/-oaie, -an/-ană etc. (masc/fem pairs). From an unattested Late Latin -onus, -ona, the origin of the other Romance augmentative suffixes. The archaic form has survived unchanged in Banat ( and in Aromanian) as -on', -oan'e As in other languages, a feminine base word may have masculine or feminine forms in the augmentative. Examples:
Spanish
In Spanish, -o becomes -ón and -a becomes -ona most frequently, but -ote/-ota and -azo/-aza (also 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.
Bulgarian
In Bulgarian, as in Russian, mainly with -ище.
Polish
In Polish there is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, for example: żaba (a frog) → żabucha / żabsko / żabisko / żabula; or kamień (a stone) → kamulec / kamior / etc.
Russian
In Russian there is a variety of augmentatives formed with prefixes (including loans from Latin) and suffixes, including -ище and -ин for example: дом (the house) домище (great 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).
Serbo-Croatian
In Serbo-Croatian there is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, most commonly with -ina.
Arabic
Form II of the Arabic verb often has an augmentative sense, which may indicate intensity (intensive) or repetition (frequentative).
Bantu languages
Bantu languages' noun class markers often double up as augmentative and diminutive markers, some have separate classes only used as augmentative or diminutive.
Chichewa
Chichewa noun class 7 prefix chi- doubles up as augmentative marker. For example chindege which is a huge plane as opposed to ndege which is just a regular plane.
Esperanto
In Esperanto, the -eg- suffix is included before the final part-of-speech vowel. For example, domo (house) becomes domego (mansion). See Esperanto vocabulary.
Interlingua
Interlingua does not have an augmentative suffix, but international prefixes such as super-, hyper-, mega- can be used as augmentatives. See also Interlingua grammar.