An augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive. Overaugmenting something often makes it grotesque and so in some languages, augmentatives are used primarily for comical effect or as pejoratives. Many languages have augmentatives for nouns, and some have augmentatives for verbs.
In modern English, augmentatives can be created with the prefixes:
over-: e.g., overlord and overqualified.
grand-: e.g., grandmaster and grandparent.
super-: e.g., supermarket and superpower.
mega-: e.g., megastore and megastar.
arch-: e.g., archrival and archangel.
Since the early 1990s, the prefix über- or uber- has also frequently been used as a borrowing from German. The suffix -zilla, expressing a monstrous quality, can also be considered an augmentative form. In some parts of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the prefix "auld" is used as an augmentative, and a pejorative in some cases. An example of this is using "auld'un" or "auld one" to describe one's parents/grandparents.
In modern Dutch, augmentatives are usually created with the prefixes:
over-: e.g., overgewicht and oververhitting
groot-: e.g., grootmeester and groothandel
super-: e.g., supermarkt and supermacht.
mega-: e.g., megacontract and megabioscoop
There are also prefixes that can be used for some adjectives:
bloed-: e.g., bloedmooi and bloedeigen
steen-: e.g., steenrijk and steengoed
kei-: e.g., keihard and keileuk
German
In German, there are different ways to build augmentatives. They are rarely used prefixes:
un-, for instance in Unzahl "huge number", Unsumme "huge sum", Unmenge "huge quantity". Mostly used for negation, however, and occasionally in a pejorative sense.
ur-, for instance, uralt "ancient"
über-, for instance, Übermensch
aber-, for instance, abertausend "thousands".
mega-, for example megageil "mega-cool"
ultra-, for example ultracool
voll-, for example Vollpfosten "idiot", lit. "total post"
In Swedish the way to build augmentative is to add one of many prefixes before the word. This can be done on words in most word classes. The most common prefixes are: jätte- "giant", bauta-, mega-. For example:
hus "house" → megahus "gigantic house"
snabb "fast" → jättesnabb "very fast"
sten "rock" → bautasten "boulder"
There are many synonyms to jätte-, although only when jätte- means "very", not big. Some of these synonyms are: as-, gör-, svin-, skit-, and ur- although, as written above, these do not change the size of a noun but just change e.g. gul "yellow" to jättegul "very yellow". The use of prefixes to build augmentatives is quite colloquial and is seldom used in formal text and speech, where adjectives and adverbs are used instead.
Greek language
has a variety of augmentative suffixes: -α, -άρα, -αράς, ΄-αρος, -άκλα, -ακλάς, ΄-ακλας.
-one, -ona, found also in several English loanwords from Italian, often via French: minestrone ; provolone cheese ; cartone appears in English carton and cartoon; ballone ; millione 'million' ;
Suffixes -accio, -accia, and -astro, -astra, also exist, but they are used to form pejorative words, with no properly augmentative meaning: coltellaccio ; the family nameCarpaccio.
In Portuguese, the most common augmentatives are the masculine -ão and the feminine -ona, although there are others, less frequently used. E.g. carro "car", carrão "big car"; homem "man", homenzarrão "big man"; mulher "woman", mulherona "big woman". Sometimes, especially in Brazilian Portuguese, the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning ; however, such cases usually imply subtle meaning twists, mostly with a somewhat gross or vulgar undertone.
In Romanian there are several augmentative suffixes: -oi/-oaie, -an/-ană etc.. They originate from Latin -ō, the origin of the other Romance augmentative suffixes. The archaic form has survived unchanged in Banat as -on', -oan'e. As in other Romance languages, a feminine base word may have masculine or feminine forms in the augmentative. Examples:
In Spanish, -o becomes -ón and -a becomes -ona most frequently, but -ote/-ota and -azo/-aza 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 Polish there is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, for example: żaba → żabucha / żabsko / żabisko / żabula; or kamień → kamulec / kamior / etc.
Russian
In Russian there is a variety of augmentatives formed with prefixes and suffixes, including -ище and -ин for example: дом домище домина. To provide an impression of excessive qualities the suffix -га can be used for example: ветер, ветрюга.
Croatian and Serbian
In Croatian and Serbian there is a variety of augmentative nouns formed with suffixes:
-ina, e.g. brdo, n. + ina → brdina
-čina, e.g. majmun, m. + čina → majmunčina
-etina, e.g. kuća, f. + etina → kućetina
-erina, e.g. kuća + erina → kućerina
-urina, e.g. ptica, f. + urina → ptičurina
-ešina, e.g. glava, f. + ešina → glavešina
-uština, e.g. bara, f. + uština → baruština
-ušina, e.g. pijetao, m. + ušina → pjetlušina
-urda, e.g. noga, f. + urda → nožurda
-ura, e.g. djevojka, f. + ura → djevojčura
-eskara, e.g. ljudi, m., pluralia tantum + eskara → ljudeskara, singular
-uskara, e.g. baba, f. + uskara → babuskara
-erda, e.g. ruka, f. + erda → ručerda
Augmentative nouns are either pejoratives or hypocorisms. All augmentative nouns have female grammatical gender. Some nouns can have their augmentatives formed with different suffixes, for example, see 'kuća' above. In Hrvatska gramatika, Barić et al. do not classify adjectives formed with suffixes which intensify an action or property as augmentatives. The augmentative prefixes for adjectives listed in Hrvatska gramatika are pre-, hiper-, super- and ultra-. According to Hrvatska enciklopedija, augmentative verbs surpass their base verb with their intensity. However, by defining augmentative verbs as an action done excessively, Hrvatska gramatika only lists pre- as an augmentative verb.
Semitic languages
Arabic
of the Arabic verb often has an augmentative sense, which may indicate intensity or repetition.
Bantu languages
Bantu languages' noun class markers often double as augmentative and diminutive markers, and some have separate classes that are used only as a augmentative or a diminutive.
Chichewa
noun class 7 prefix chi- doubles up as augmentative marker. For example, chindege which is a huge plane as opposed to ndege which is just a regular plane.
