Augmentative
From Free net encyclopedia
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 the augmentative is formed with affixes, for example: kamien (stone) kamlot (large stone), żaba (the frog) żabucha (big frog or frog we don't like), dziewczyna (girl) dziewucha (older girl, large girl, or the girl we don't like) etc.