hypocorism

1. (countable) A term of endearment, often a diminutive; a pet name.Examples: ""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."Synonyms: hypocoristic#Noun, hypocoristicon, nickname, pet form, pet name, sobriquetcountable

2. (uncountable) The formation of terms of endearment or pet names.Examples: "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'."uncountable

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