-ish - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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From Middle English -ish, -isch, from Old English -isċ (“-ish”, suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-isk, from Proto-Germanic *-iskaz (“-ish”), from Proto-Indo-European *-iskos.
Cognate with Dutch -s; German -isch (whence Dutch -isch); Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish -isk or -sk; Lithuanian -iškas; Russian -ский (-skij); and the Ancient Greek diminutive suffix -ίσκος (-ískos). Doublet of -esque and -ski.
-ish
- (of adjectives from common nouns) Typical of, similar to, being like.
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; […]
- (of adjectives from adjectives, with a diminutive force) Somewhat, rather.
Her face had a bluish tinge.
1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
- (of adjectives from numbers, especially of times and ages) About, approximately.
- We arrived at tennish. We arrived tennish. ― We arrived sometime around ten.
I couldn't tell his precise age, but he looked fiftyish.
- (of adjectives from roots of proper nouns denoting names of nations or regions) Of, belonging, or relating to (a nationality, place, language or similar association with something).
- This is a productive termination used as a regular formative of adjectives (which are sometimes also used as nouns).
- (of adjectives from common nouns) Many of the words may have a more or less depreciative or contemptuous force.
- (of adjectives from roots of proper nouns) This is the regular formative of patrial adjectives, with the suffix in some adjectives being contracted to -sh or (especially when t precedes) to -ch, as in Welsh (formerly also Welch), Scotch, Dutch, and French. Some used colloquially or made up on occasion may have a diminutive or derogatory implication.
- (being like): quasi-, para-, -oid, -form/-iform, -esque, -ly, -some, -y, (restricted to casual registers) -ass, (forms adjectives from nouns only) -like
appended to words
- Albanian: -ëz
- Armenian: -ական (-akan)
- Dutch: -achtig (nl), -ig (nl)
- Georgian: -ური (-uri)
- German: -haft (de), -lich (de), -ig (de)
- Greek: -ικός (el) (-ikós)
- Hungarian: -os (hu), -as (hu), -es (hu), -ös (hu), -s (hu), -dad, -ded
- Italian: ico m, ica f
- Japanese: っぽい (ja) (ppoi)
- Norwegian:
- Polish: -iczny, -yczny
- Portuguese: -ico (pt)
- Romanian: -ic (ro), -esc (ro), -iu
- Spanish: -ico (es), -iento (es)
- Swedish: -aktig (sv)
- Turkish: -ca (tr), -ça (tr), -ce (tr), -çe (tr)
- Welsh: -aidd (cy)
appended to adjectives
- Armenian: -ավուն (-avun)
- Azerbaijani: -sov
- Dutch: -achtig (nl), -ig (nl)
- Finnish: -hko (fi), -hkö (fi)
- French: -âtre (fr) (mostly colours), assez (fr)
- Georgian: მო- -ო (mo- -o)
- German: -lich (de)
- Hindi: सा (hi) (sā)
- Hungarian: -os (hu), -as (hu), -es (hu), -ös (hu), -s (hu)
- Irish: scoth- (colours)
- Lithuanian: -okas
- Polish: -awy (pl)
- Romanian: -iu, -ui (ro) (mostly colors)
- Russian: -ва́тый (-vátyj)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Roman: -ast
- Spanish: -ento (es), -oso (es)
- Turkish: -imsi (tr), -imtrak
- Welsh: -aidd (cy)
appended to numbers
appended to roots denoting names of nations or regions
- Arabic: ـِيّ (ar) (-iyy)
- Armenian: -ական (-akan)
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: use attributive noun
- Mandarin: use attributive noun
- Czech: -ský (cs) m
- Danish: -isk, -sk, -esisk
- Dutch: -isch (nl), -s (nl)
- Faroese: -skur
- French: -ois (fr), -oise (fr), -ais (fr), -aise (fr), -ain (fr), -aine (fr)
- Galician: -és (gl) m
- Georgian: -ელი (-eli)
- German: -isch (de)
- Gothic: -𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 m (-isks)
- Hungarian: -i (hu), -beli (hu)
- Icelandic: -skur
- Manx: (nationality, region or place) -agh m, (language) -ish f
- Norwegian: -sk (no)
- Old Norse: -iskr
- Polish: -ski (pl) m
- Portuguese: -ês (pt) m, -esa f, -eses m pl, -esas f pl
- Romanian: -esc (ro)
- Russian: -ский m (-skij)
- Sanskrit: -ईय (-īya)
- Spanish: -és (es) m, -esa m
- Swedish: -isk (sv)
From Middle English -ishen, -ischen, -issen, from Old French -iss-, -is- (a termination of the stem of some forms [present participle, etc.] of certain verbs), from Latin -ēscere, -īscere (an inchoative suffix), the formative -esc-, -isc- (-sc-, Greek -σκ- (-sk-)) being ultimately cognate with English -ish (Etymology 1). See -esce, -escent, etc.
-ish
- (non-productive) An ending found on some verbs; see usage notes.
- This is a termination of some English verbs of French origin, which normally end in -ir in French, or formed on the type of such verbs, having no assignable force, but being merely a terminal relic, e.g. astonish, banish, establish, diminish, finish, punish, etc.
- In some verbs it appears in the form -ise, as in advertise and franchise.
- William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “-ish”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume III, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 3193.
- “ish”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- Booker, John Manning (1912) The French “Inchoative” Suffix -iss and the French -ir Conjugation in Middle English[1], Heidelberg
From the dative form of Old Irish -as (“-ish”).
-ish f
- -ish (language)
- Added to names of places or peoples to denote the language spoken in that place or by that people.
From Old Irish -si (3rd person singular feminine; 2nd person plural)
-ish
- -self (emphatic)
- Added to prepositional pronouns to add emphasis (not to create a reflexive pronoun).
- Used in third-person singular feminine (eg mareeish).
- Used in second-person plural (eg erriuish).
Inherited from Old English -isċ.
-ish
- Alternative form of -yssh
-ish
- A suffix denoting the pejorative form of a noun that ends in a consonant.
-ish
- pejorative
Jerry Randolph Valentine (2001) Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar, University of Toronto, page 191
-ish
- (slang) Used to form slang words (that are often identical in meaning to the unsuffixed word).
Vad händish? (Vad händer?)
- What's up?