The Greek Diminutive Suffix -loxo- -loxtj-. 169 



orative meaning has been brought in without the interposition of 

 any diminutive element. 



47. Sometimes, however, the deteriorative idea may be derived 

 from that of small size, so certainly in the use of avO-pwxiTxo? 

 'wretched httle manikin' in Eur. Cycl. 316 (§ 53), where the 

 Cyclops thus addresses Odysseus in contrast to his own size and 

 power, but with a contempt which is the result of the appreciation 

 of this difference. At other times the contempt is derived from 

 the hypocoristic use of the suffix, e. g. when a hypocorism is 

 applied ironically. So ineiQaxiGxiq ' dear httle maid ' is addressed 

 in derision to an old woman in Ar. Plut. 963. Similarly axiadlaxrj : 

 (Txta? in Anacr. 21. 13 GxtaBioxYjv £>.£(pavTivTjV cpopsT Fuvat^iv a'jTw?. 

 The umbrella is viewed with contempt because of its being for 

 men a reprehensible luxury, an originally hypocoristic idea. Cf. Gr. 

 Dims. § 152. 



48. The fully developed deteriorative notion, no matter of what 

 origin, does not really always consist of contempt, but the emotion 

 may be hate or anger.^ Rarely so in Greek. In -ktxo- I find 

 xadlaxog : xdcBo? ' wine-jar ' in Crat, frg. 2. 122 (8) (7UVTpi(]>co yap 

 auToO Totji; loccc, Kai tou? xaBioTtou? auyxepauvoio-co (ttcoBwv Kai i:aXkoc 

 TcavT ayyeTa xa Tispi tov %6'iO'y, KouB' oHujSacpov oiv/jpov sti xext:^- 

 CTETai, Similarly veavlaxog § 53 (2d ex.). 



49. The deteriorative use of -ictko- never seems to have had 

 great productivity. I can quote only twenty one words of all 

 periods, mostly from Classical writers, for -lov later encroached 

 (§ 30). Its beginning, however, antedates the transmission, 

 since oxiaBicrx-r) occurs in the Lyric poet Anacreon and other ex- 

 amples come from Old Comedy. 



I. The Deteriorative represents an Object as being Despicable 

 in Comparison with the Normal of its Class. 



50. The deteriorative meaning which develops directly from the 

 notion of similarity as shown § 46, which is probably at the 

 root of most of the deterioratives, since it is due to the shorter 

 cut from the older meaning, must originally represent an object 

 as being despicable in comparison with the normal of its class. 

 Thus BpaTcsTicrxo? ' a poor excuse for a fugitive,' ' an unsuccessful 

 fugitive,' because ' not a real fugitive, but only bke one,' falls 

 below the normal of the class fugitive because of its quahty of 



1 Such words are called imprecatory diminutives by Edgerton, JAOS. 

 31- 138 f. 



