The Suffix -ish in British English - Develop your English Vocabulary
You have probably noticed the suffix ¬-ish at the end of many English words.
The suffix -ish is actually in the words English and British, and consequently Britlish, too.
A suffix is a tag that we add to the end of words to change their meaning slightly.
In the case of -ish we add it to the ends of nouns and adjectives to form adjectives which mean approximately, somewhat, or like.
Take the word English, for example. It was originally Anglish meaning like the Angles, a tribe who colonised the east of the country after the Romans left.
Before the Angles or the Romans came, the islands were populated by the Britons from who we get things that are like the Britons, or are British.
It’s a very old suffix which Old English inherited from the Germanic.
Common uses of the suffix -ish are colour words like blueish, greenish, reddish, brownish.
Other common uses talk about the size of things; tallish, shortish, smallish, biggish, fattish, thinnish.
We also use -ish when talking about the temperature of things as in coldish, coolish, warmish, hottish.
Other adjectives describing qualities also use -ish to form adjectives like softish, hardish, wildish, wettish.
The suffix -ish is often added to numbers and time to indicate approximation as in “I’ll see you at sevenish.”
A woman might well claim to be thirtyish when she is, in fact, nearer fifty.
So common is the use of -ish in English that in more recent times it has even become a word in its own right.
You might ask someone if they are hungry to be met with the reply, “Ish”, which will tell you that they are not starving hungry but might be persuaded to eat something.
There is more to learn about the suffix -ish in the Britlish Library at .
The Britlish Library is not cheapish, it’s completely free of charge.
I look forward to seeing you there soon.
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If you want to take your English to the next level, visit the Britlish Library at today.
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