Go to 'thermo-' entry Go to 'dino-' entry Go to 'chondro-' entry Go to 'aero-' entry Go to '-logy' entry Go to 'thaumato-' entry Go to 'nano-' entry Go to '-sophy' entry Go to 'bucco-' entry Go to '-ism' entry Go to '-lysis' entry Go to 'galacto-' entry Go to '-anthropy' entry Go to 'pneumo-' entry Go to '-ploitation' entry Go to '-lithic' entry Go to '-sepalous' entry Go to 'onco-' entry Go to '-parous' entry Go to 'dermato-' entry Go to 'multi-' entry Go to 'dodeca-' entry Go to '-zoon' entry Go to 'vermi-' entry Go to 'crystallo-' entry Go to 'biblio-' entry Go to 'eco-' entry Go to 'juxta-' entry Go to 'facio-' entry
Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-een

Forming diminutive nouns.

[Irish diminutive suffix -ín.]

Most words in -een are characteristically Irish, though many are now more widely known: a colleen (Irish cailin, diminutive of caile, countrywoman) is a girl or young woman; poteen (Irish (fuisce) poitín, little pot (of whiskey), diminutive of pota, pot) is alcohol made illicitly, typically from potatoes; a shebeen (Anglo-Irish síbín, from séibe, mugful) is an unlicensed establishment or private house selling alcoholic liquor; smithereens (Irish smidirín, a small fragment), small pieces.

A few words come instead from the French ending -in or -ine: canteen, tureen; some names for materials were formed in English in imitation of bombazeen, an older spelling of bombazine, for example velveteen and sateen. The modern equivalent of this ending is -ine (see -ine2).

See also -teen.

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