tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23440466.post114153002467729895..comments2023-07-07T03:13:14.127-05:00Comments on Ask Chaka: cookeeSpecial Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16894140609018031975noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23440466.post-1142394801977863702006-03-14T21:53:00.000-06:002006-03-14T21:53:00.000-06:00Summary of findings: I was right.Cookie is from a...Summary of findings: I was right.<BR/><BR/>Cookie is from a Dutch word for "cake" plus a diminutive suffix.<BR/><BR/>Mentor was the name of the tutor Odysseus left in charge of his son.<BR/><BR/>If you want a quick test of these cases, like copier/copy, may I suggest that only those words that end in -ee really could qualify. This suffix probably didn't become productive until after the standardization of spelling, so it probably doesn't underlie any other spellings of the sound /i/.Chakahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14405341165307564619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23440466.post-1141702438532942472006-03-06T21:33:00.000-06:002006-03-06T21:33:00.000-06:00so does this work for copier / copy ?so does this work for copier / copy ?PopStarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02821211730859910064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23440466.post-1141662893269534062006-03-06T10:34:00.000-06:002006-03-06T10:34:00.000-06:00First of all, thank you, Linus and Special K, for ...First of all, thank you, Linus and Special K, for giving me a reason to waste more time on the internet. God will judge you.<BR/><BR/>The -ee suffix is what we call a "productive morpheme" in that it can be used to form new words, prototypically referring to a person who receives the action done by the person with the -er suffix. For example, I believe the word "mentor" derives from the name of a person in Greek literature. Some speaker of English analyzed the end of this name as being the -or/-er/-ar suffix and created the parallel word "mentee," which I've been hearing quite a lot lately. I don't know if it's in OED yet, but it's definitely a new word created by this productive morpheme.<BR/><BR/>Your proposed history of "cookie" is setting off my folk-etymology sensors, however. I doubt that this is the origin, but OED shall be consulted. My sense is that -ee became productive much more recently than the word "cookie" appeared in English.Chakahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14405341165307564619noreply@blogger.com