caressive

English

WOTD – 13 February 2019

Etymology

From caress +‎ -ive.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈɹɛsɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: car‧ess‧ive
• Rhymes: -ɛsɪv

Adjective

caressive (comparative more caressive, superlative most caressive)

1. Having the nature of a caress; gentle, soothing.

   Synonyms: comforting, emollient, mollifying

   • 1859, Alexandre Dumas, “The Conciergerie”, in L. Lawford, transl., Chateau Rouge; or, The Reign of Terror (Railway Library; 188), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warnes, and Routledge, […], →OCLC, pages 245–246:

     But the faithful creature [a dog] had soon returned, and comprehending that his mistress was confined in this great stone building, he whined and howled, waiting, within ten feet of the sentinel, a caressive reply.

   • 1857 October 3, [William Russell], “Kirke Webbe, the Privateer Captain”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, volume VIII, number 196, London, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers […], →OCLC, chapter X, page 220, column 1:

     Too true that her soft eyes were constantly suffused with tears, and that, when speaking to me, her voice was inexpressibly tender and caressive—her smile so sad, so pitiful, that it would have touched the heart of a tiger!

   • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter IX, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 114:

     'It's a lovely day, today!' Mrs Bolton would say in her caressive, persuasive voice.

2. (linguistics) Of a diminutive: indicating affection or endearment.
   • 1801 September 1, Canakin [pseudonym], “Desultory Comments on Mason’s Supplement to Johnson’s Dictionary”, in The Monthly Magazine, or British Register, volume XII, part II, number 77, London: Printed for Richard Phillips, […], →OCLC, page 98, column 1:

     All diminutives eaſily acquire a careſſive character, as animula, ocellus, &c. the Greeks even called their diminutives ὐποκρισικα; and the ſofter form, lin, rather than kin, would moſt naturally be ſo appropriated.

   • 1827, James Heard, A Practical Grammar of the Russian Language, St. Petersburg: Printed for the author, and sold by Sleunine, and by Boosey and Sons London, →OCLC, § 69, page 66:

     Russian diminutives are of two kinds: caressive and contemptuous; ex. домъ, a house, до́микъ, a pretty little house, домѝшко, a miserable hut.

   • 1830, David Booth, “Introduction”, in An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language; [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed and published by J. and C. Adlard, […], →OCLC, page xliii:

     Ling (a termination inherited from the Anglo-Saxons,) is either a diminutive, as little, or descriptive of family, as kind. Hence we have darling, (or dearling,) firstling, foundling, gosling, &c. Some of these have a caressive signification, by recalling to our minds the simplicity of childhood.

   • 2015, Fatma Şahan Güney, “Eurasia [Tatar]”, in Nicola Grandi, Lívia Körtvélyessy, editors, Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, part II, page 312:

     Caressive forms and endearments, which are used when addressing someone in an affectionate way, are frequently formed by attaching -kAy to words conveying precious or valued things: (6) a. altın-kay-ım / gold-dim-1pos / 'my precious'

Derived terms

• caressively

Related terms

• caress
• caresser
• caressingly

 

Translations

having the nature of a caress

• Finnish: hyväilevä

of a diminutive: indicating affection or endearment

• Finnish: hellittely- (fi)
• Ukrainian: пестли́вий (uk) (pestlývyj)

Noun

caressive (plural caressives)

1. (linguistics) A type of diminutive indicating affection or endearment.
   • 1896, Alexander Francis Chamberlain, “The Name Child”, in The Child and Childhood in Folk-thought: (The Child in Primitive Culture), New York, N.Y., London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 88:

     [W]e, like the ancient Mexicans and many another lower race, have terms of praise and endearment,—"a jewel of a babe," and the like,—legions of caressives and diminutives in the use of which some of the Low German dialects are more lavish even than Lowland Scotch.

   • 2010, Mariza Georgalou, “Pathfinding Discourses of Self in Social Network Sites”, in Rotimi Taiwo, editor, Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction: Language Structures and Social Interaction, volume I, Hershey, Pa.: Information Science Reference, →ISBN, section 1 (Discursive Behavior and Social Interaction), page 51, column 1:

     An interesting characteristic of the following extracts is the abundance of diminutives also termed “caressives” in Greek. -άκι, -ίτσα and -ούλα here are derivational suffixes for indexing the diminutive and their use indicates affection, endearment and solidarity serving thus as markers of informal positive politeness […].

   • 2015, Fatma Şahan Güney, “Eurasia [Tatar]”, in Nicola Grandi, Lívia Körtvélyessy, editors, Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, part II, page 312:

     One another suffix used as a caressive and appellative is -(l)y. Like -kAy, it is attached to kinship terms, generally to the ones expressing closer relationships.

Translations

type of diminutive indicating affection or endearment

• French: caressive

Further reading

• diminutive on Wikipedia.Wikipedia