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, 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
suffixed with
‑y or
‑ie (phonologically ). Sometimes the suffix
-o is included as well as other forms or templates. == See also ==