New "lumpkin," "girney"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/21/2007 11:06 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>clearly related to "lump". "-kin"
>is a diminutive suffix, of which the OED says in part
>
>     The suffix has only a limited use in English. It appears to occur first
>in some familiar forms of personal (chiefly male) names, which were either
>adoptions or imitations of diminutive forms current in Flanders and Holland,
>where such forms appear already in the 10th c.
>
>This is clearly its origin in the term of endearment for a child.

There is also "Munchkin", used by some parents (or at least, My brother).

Joel

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