> In French, there are a variety of evaluative suffixes such as the diminutive, feminine, and augmentative. In addition, linguists and laypersons alike sometimes include the category “pejorative.” Suffixes such as -asse, -aud, and -ard have been labeled as pejorative by many authors, and words containing these suffixes are often considered pejorative by native speakers at first glance whether they are or not.
The devil is in the detail, however, as many if not most of these “pejorative” suffixes are far more complicated than dictionaries and native speakers typically give them credit. M…