hypocorism

noun

1. (countable)A term of endearment, often a diminutive; a pet name.

   “"Mary" is informed that "Polly" is one of those "hypocorisms," or pet-names, in which our language abounds. Most are mere abbreviations, as Will, Nat, Pat, Bell, &c., taken usually from the beginning, sometimes from the end of the name.”

   “For the flattering hypocorisms of lovers and parents see Plut. de Leg. Poet. p. 44; [...]”

   “The addition of diminutive or familiar prefixes and suffixes to the name of a saint to produce a 'pet name' or hypocorism, is common in the Celtic areas and would at times seem to produce extra saints from doublets of existing names.”

   “Cabbage, however, has enjoyed unlikely success as a hypocorism, a usage that dates back to the mid nineteenth century; this usage arose as a direct translation of chou, which French lovers had been calling each other for a long time: "Oh, mon petit chou"—"Oh, my little cabbage."”

   “Another example are hypocorisms (nicknames based on personal names) derived via language-specific word formation processes. In Amadeus, the German hypocorisms for Wolfgang and Constanze, Wolfie and Stanzi, can pass as German as well as American English – however, the latter hearing is encouraged by Constanze's pronunciation of the first vowel in Wolfie as [ˈvʊlfɪ] rather than German [ˈvɒlfɪ].”

2. (uncountable)The formation of terms of endearment or pet names.

   “St Peter's cult, which dates from the earliest period in Brittany, is represented in the toponymy only in the radical form of his name, without hypocorism or mutation.”

   “An acronym that never seems to have had capital letters comes from "young urban professional", plus the -ie suffix, as in hypocorism, to produce the word yuppie (first recorded in 1984).”

   “A variant on clipping that is common in Australian English is hypocorism. This involves first clipping a word down to a closed monosyllable. Next the suffix -y ~ -ie (/i/) is attached to the clipped form. Some examples are Aussie 'Australian', brekky 'breakfast', bickie 'biscuit', barbie 'barbeque' and telly 'television'.”

3. (rare, uncountable)Baby talk, such as bow-wow for dog and choo-choo for train.

   “In European languages reduplication is often associated with hypocorism or baby talk (e.g. wee-wee, or French bonbon) but this is not the case in the Atlantic creoles and the Niger-Congo languages.”