iminutive
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
In Yiddish, a second-degree or more intensive diminutive form.
Example Sentences
- "What is not common, however, in German dialects is the existence of an intensive diminutive (or, as it sometimes is called, an iminutive) having the shape -ele."
- "Faber and King note that Yiddish and Bavarian both have an "intensive diminutive," i.e., a second degree of diminution (iminutive); thus, StY štot 'city,' štetl 'market town', štetɘlɘ 'little market town [endearing].'"
- "The main point in the diminutive and iminutive system is, however, not only that elements of two dialectally different subsystems of German have fused in the German component."
- "In addition to the diminutive, Yiddish has an 'iminutive', which is used to indicate that something is even smaller (as well as cuter, more lovable, or possibly more inferior) than a diminutive noun."
Etymology
Back-formation from diminutive.