A pejorative suffix is a suffix that attaches a negative meaning to the word or word-stem preceding it. There is frequent overlap between this and the diminutive form.
The pejorative suffix may add the sense of "a despicable example of the preceding," as in Spanish -ejo (see below). It can also convey the sense of "a despicable human having the preceding characteristic"; for instance, as in English -el (see below) or the development of the word cuckold from Old French cocu "cuckoo" + -ald, taken into Anglo-Saxon as cokewald and thus to the modern English word.
Examples of the pejorative suffix:
Read more about Pejorative Suffix: Catalan, Dutch, English, Esperanto, French, Hawaiian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Ojibwe (Anishinaabemowin), Provençal, Russian, Spanish
Famous quotes containing the word pejorative:
“And that is where
The pejorative sense of fear moves axles.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)