Editing Augmentative (section)

== Romance languages ==

=== Italian ===

[[Italian language|Italian]] has several augmentatives:

* ''-one'', ''-ona'', found also in several English [[loanword]]s from Italian, often via French:<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 3rd edition, ''s.v.'' -oon</ref> [[minestrone]] (< ''minestra'' 'soup'); [[provolone cheese]] (< ''provola'' 'a kind of cheese'); ''cartone'' (< ''carta'' 'paper') appears in English ''[[carton]]'' and ''[[cartoon]]''; ''balloon'' (this may have been formed in Italian, though the usual form is ''pallone'', or in French)<ref>[[Oxford English Dictionary]], ''s.v.'' ''balloon''</ref>); ''milione'' 'million' (< ''mille'' 'thousand');
Suffixes ''-accio'', ''-accia'', and ''-astro'', ''-astra'', also exist, but they are used to form [[pejorative]] words, with no properly augmentative meaning: ''coltellaccio'' (< ''coltello'' 'knife'; gives English ''[[cutlass]]''); the family name ''Carpaccio''.

=== Portuguese ===
In [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], the most common augmentatives are the masculine ''-ão'' (sometimes also ''-zão'' or ''-zarrão'') and the feminine ''-ona'' (or ''-zona''), although there are others, less frequently used. E.g. ''carro'' "car", ''carrão'' "big car"; ''homem'' "man", ''homenzarrão'' "big man"; ''mulher'' "woman", ''mulherona'' "big woman".

Sometimes, especially in [[Brazilian Portuguese]], the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning (e.g. ''"o mulherão"'' instead of ''"a mulherona"'' for "the big woman"); however, such cases usually imply subtle meaning twists, mostly with a somewhat gross or vulgar undertone (which, nonetheless, is often intentional, for the sake of wit, malice or otherwise; so, ''mulherão'' actually means not a big woman, but a particularly sexy one).

=== Romanian ===
In [[Romanian language|Romanian]] there are several augmentative suffixes: ''-oi/-oaie'', ''-an/-ană'' etc. (masculine/feminine pairs). They originate from Latin ''-ō'' (acc. sg. ''-ōnem''), the origin of the other Romance augmentative suffixes. The archaic form has survived unchanged in Banat (and in Aromanian) as ''-on''', ''-oan'e''. As in other Romance languages, a feminine base word may have masculine or feminine forms in the augmentative. Examples:
* casă (f.) → căsoi (n.), căsoaie (f.)
* piatră (f.) → pietroi (n.)
* băiat (m.) → băiețoi (m.)
* băiat (m.) → băietan (m.)
* fată (f.) → fetișcană (f.)

=== Spanish ===
In [[Spanish language|Spanish]], -o becomes -ón and -a becomes -ona most frequently, but -ote/-ota and -azo/-aza (also meaning ''-blow'') are also commonly seen.  Others include  -udo/-uda, -aco/-aca, -acho/-acha, -uco/-uca, -ucho/-ucha, -astro/-astra and -ejo/-eja. ''More detail at [[Spanish nouns#Diminutives.2C augmentatives and suffixes|Spanish nouns]]''.