-ish

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Suffix 1.3.1 Translations 1.4 See also

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From Old English -isc. Cognate with German and Dutch -isch, Latin -icus, -isce and -ice, Ancient Greek -ικος (-ikos), Slavic -ic, -ich, etc.

[edit] Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ɪʃ/, SAMPA: /IS/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

[edit] Suffix

-ish

1. (appended to many kinds of words) Typical or similar to.

   Her face had a girlish charm.

   • 1859, Harriet Parr (as Holme Lee), Against Wind and Tide, volume 1, p. 273:

     […] ; for she had recently developed a magpie[-]ish tendency to appropriate and conceal trifling matters; […]

2. (appended to adjectives) Somewhat.

   Her face had a greenish tinge.

3. (appended to numbers, especially times and ages) About, approximately.

   We arrived at tennish or We arrived tennish. (A few minutes before, to a few minutes after.)

   I couldn't tell his precise age, but he was fiftyish.

4. (appended to roots denoting names of nations or regions) Of a nationality, region, or place, or the language associated with a place.

   Cornish, Danish, English, Kentish, Spanish

[edit] Translations

[edit] See also

• -ish
• -ic
• -ic
• -isch, -sch
• -ese
• -ika
• -ik
• -isc
• -isk
• -sk
• -ska
• -ski
• -skie
• -sky
• -ie
• -y
• -s