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Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-kin Also -kins.

Forming diminutive nouns.

[Middle Dutch -kijn, -ken, Middle Low German -kīn.]

A manikin, a person who is very small, derives from Dutch manneken, diminutive of man (the store dummy called a mannequin is the French spelling of the same word); a bodkin, a thick, blunt needle with a large eye, is historically most probably a small bod, an Irish word for a dagger; gherkin is a diminutive of a Dutch word for a cucumber; larrikin, an Australian term for a boisterous, often badly behaved young man, is possibly a diminutive of the given name Larry; napkin is a diminutive of Old French nappe, tablecloth. Words in -kins express endearment, as in babykins, bunnykins, mouseykins.

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