More Suffix-fu Part I

A long time ago (in a former life, almost), I was writing a research paper on the origins of the English word smile. I had wanted to find out why it was that English, unlike other European languages, had completely different words for laugh and smile. Compare, for instance, French rire et sourire, German lachen und lächeln.

I don't believe I turned up an answer, but I did find out something very interesting. Our smile never made an appearance in English until the 13th century (as a loan from Scandinavian); previous to that, the Old English smearcian (now our smirk) had served.

Now, it so happens that smile and smirk are both related to Latin mirari, "to wonder at." I found this out by looking at Eric Partridge's Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English. (There are many very surprising cross-references to be encountered in this volume. Look up walk, for example, and you'll be directed to "See VOLUBLE, para 7." Check out gymnasium and you'll be asked to "See NAKED, para 4.")

But if smile and smirk are cognates of mirari, where does the -k in smirk come from? It is a diminutive suffix known in Germanic philological circles as "k-diminutiva." This pair, smile and smirk, has parallels in tell and talk; steal and stalk; and even well and walk.

I'll write more about well and walk in my next post, but it's worth noting that k-diminutiva also lies behind the suffix -ock, as found in hillock, bullock, buttock, and, yes, bollocks.