hypocorism

Wikipedia

English

Etymology

Late Latin hypocorisma, a loan from Ancient Greek noun ὑποκόρισμα (hypokórisma) from the verb ὑποκορίζομαι (hypokorízomai, “to talk in a childish manner”). The Ancient Greek verb ὑποκορίζομαι (hypokorízomai) is compounded from ὑπό (hypo-, “under, beneath, secretly”) + κορίζομαι (korízomai, “to caress”). In the verb you can see the word κόρος (kóros, “boy”) or κόρη (kórē, “girl”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: haɪˈpɒ.kəˌrɪ.zəm

Noun

hypocorism (plural hypocorisms)

1. A term of endearment; a pet name.
   • 2003, Mark Steven Morton, The Lover's Tongue^[1]:

     Cabbage, however, has enjoyed unlikely success as a hypocorism, a usage that dates back to the mid nineteenth century; this usage arose as a direct translation of chou, which French lovers had been calling each other for a long time: "Oh, mon petit chou"—"Oh, my little cabbage."

Synonyms

• nickname
• pet name
• sobriquet

Derived terms

• hypocoristic
• hypocoristical
• hypocoristically

Translations

hypocorism

Dutch: koosnaam (nl), koosnaampje (nl), hypokorisme (nl) Finnish: lempinimi (fi) French: hypocoristique (fr) German: Lallname (de)

Greek: υποκόρισμα (el) Latin: hypokorisma (la) Swedish: smeknamn (sv), hypokorism (sv)

hypocoristic

Catalan: hipocorístic (ca) m. Croatian: hipokoristik (hr) m., odmilica (hr) f. French: hypocoristique (fr) Galician: hipocorístico (gl) m.

Greek: υποκοριστικό (el) (ipokoristikó) Italian: ipocoristico (it) m. Portuguese: hipocorístico (pt) m. Spanish: hipocorístico (es) m.