An augmentative is a suffix or prefix added to a noun in order to convey the sense of greater intensity, often though not primarily indicating a larger size. It is the opposite of a diminutive.

Augmentatives in a few languages

In modern English, augmentatives are rare. Since the early 1990s, there has been a semi-ironic borrowing of the augmentive prefix "über" (usually pronounced as /?u?b?/) from German: as in 'über-guru'.

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 are 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 Romanian there are several augmentative suffixes: -oi/-oaie, -an/-an? etc (masc/fem pairs). As in other languages, a feminine base word may have masculine or feminine forms in the augmentative. Examples:

• cas? (f.) -> c?soi (n.), c?soaie (f.)
• piatr? (f.) -> pietroi (n.)
• b?iat (m.) -> b?ie?oi (m.)
• b?iat (m.) -> b?ietan (m.)

In Polish there is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, for example: ?aba (a frog) ?abucha (big frog) ?absko (frog we don't like) ?abisko (frog we feel pity for) ?abula (unwieldy frog for which we feel some sympathy), kamie? (stone), kamul/kamol (large stone), dziewczyna (girl) dziewucha (older girl, large girl, or the girl we don't like) etc.

In German, there are different ways to build augmentatives. They are rarely used prefixes:

• Un-, for instance in Unzahl, Unsumme, Unmenge, Untiefe, Unkraut or Untier.
  The derived word references a greater and mostly evil or frightening variation of the original word. Un- is more often used for negation (eg. Ungereimtheit).
• Aber-, for instance Abertausend

Modern Greek has a variety of augmentative suffixes: -?, -???, -????, ?-????, -????, -?????, ?-?????.

In Russian there is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, including -??? and -?? for example: ??? (the house) ?????? (big house) ?????? (huge house). To provide an impression of excessive qualities the suffix -?? can be used for example: ????? (the wind) ??????? (strong wind).

In Bulgarian - like in Russian, mainly with -???. See also here.

Augmentatives in Constructed languages

In Esperanto, the -eg- suffix is included before the final part-of-speech vowel. For example, domo (house) becomes domego (mansion). See Esperanto vocabulary.

In Interlingua, the suffixes -on and -ion are occasionally used as augmentatives. See also Interlingua grammar.

See also

• Diminutive

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