Re: CHAT: French -ot (was: anti-Sanskritism and more)

At 21:15 5.12.2003, Ray Brown wrote:

>On Thursday, December 4, 2003, at 09:45 PM, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
>En réponse à Benct Philip Jonsson :
>
>
>Wasn't -ot originally an augmentative ending?
>Italian -otto definitely is, as well as
>mildly pejorative.
>
>The only words I know which end in -ot refer to diminutive things, so I
>treat it as a diminutive :))) .
>
>Mainly because it  :)
>The information I have is that -ot (<- V.L. -ottu(m) ) has always been a
>diminutive (cachot, manchot). It sometimes has a deprecatory meaning, e..g
>veillot; and is used as a suffix of endearment with proper names, e.g.
>Pierrot, Margot.
>
>Ray
So it is probably a deprecatory diminutive in
Italian too.  It was that combination of senses
which confused me, since diminutives of endearment
and deprecatory augnmentatives are so much more common!

BTW I've seen _Margaux_ too.  Is that only playing with
the spelling?


/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
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