Augmentative

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An augmentative is a suffix or prefix added to a word in order to convey the sense of greater intensity, often though not primarily through a larger size. It is the opposite of a diminutive.

In Spanish, -o becomes -ón and -a becomes -ona most frequently, but -ote/-ota and -azo/-aza (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.

In Portuguese, the most common augmentatives are the masculine -ão and the feminine -ona, although there others, less frequently used. Sometimes, the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning (e.g. a mulher "the woman", o mulherão "the big woman").

In Italian, -o/-a becomes -one, seen in quite a few culinary names, such as minestrone soup (from "minestra") and provolone cheese (from "provola"), family names, and other loanwords, such as Carton and cartoon, both from "cartone", augmentative of carta, paper (related to English card).

In Polish there is a rich variety of augmentatives formed with affixes, for example: żaba (the frog) żabucha (big frog) żabsko (frog we don't like) żabisko (frog we feel pity for) żabula (unwieldy frog for which we feel some sympathy), kamien (stone) kamlot (large stone), dziewczyna (girl) dziewucha (older girl, large girl, or the girl we don't like) etc.

In German, augmentatives may be either prefixes or suffixes. An example of a prefix is ur-, which can add the meaning of "older". Großvater (grandfather) becomes Urgroßvater (great-grandfather); alt (old) becomes uralt (ancient). Suffixes are very common, such as -er and -est; klein (small) becomes kleiner (smaller) or am kleinsten (smallest).

In Esperanto, the -eg- suffix is included before the final part-of-speech vowel. For example, domo (house) becomes domego (mansion). See Esperanto vocabulary.