Pet form

A hypocorism (/haɪˈpɒkərɪzəm/; from Greek ὑποκορίζεσθαι hypokorizesthai, "to use child-talk"), also known as a pet name or calling name, is a shorter, diminutive or augmentative form of a word or given name, for example, when used in more intimate situations as a nickname or term of endearment. However, shortening of names is certainly not exclusive to terms of affection; indeed, in many cases, a shortened name can also be used to intimidate or humiliate. The ambiguity would need to be clarified by context.

Hypocorisms are often generated as:

As evident from the above-mentioned examples, hypocorisms frequently demonstrate (indirectly) a phonological linguistic universal (or tendency) for high-pitched sounds to be used for smaller creatures and objects (here as more "cute" or less imposing names). Higher-pitched sounds are associated with smaller creatures because smaller creatures can only make such high frequency sounds given their smaller larynxes.

The word "" is the noun form in English; "" is the adjective form. Some other languages prefer to use the original Greek word "hypocoristicon" as a noun. The noun "hypocoristicon" seems to be rarely used in English.

The traditional hypocoristic forms of Bulgarian masculine names end with "-cho", for example: Ivan - Ivancho - Vancho, Stoyan - Stoyancho, Petur - Peturcho, Angel - Angelcho. The traditional hypocoristic forms of Bulgarian feminine names end with "-ka", for example: Ivana - Ivanka, Snezhana - Snezhanka, Bozhana - Bozhanka. In recent times, however, the hypocoristic forms of many Bulgarian names receive English and Russian endings, for example:

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