New "lumpkin," "girney"

[Charles Doyle]

Of course, the little people in the land of Oz were MUNCHKINS, and I'm sure the literary source inspired the designation of Dunkin' Donuts fried/glazed/iced doughnut "holes", capitalizing on the public's familiarity with the term from Baum's books and (especially) the 1939 movie. Nonetheless, Dunkin' Donuts seems to have recovered something of an etymology here: "munch" + the diminutive "-kin"--that is, a "little snack."

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:27:48 -0500
>From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>
>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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