Etymology
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-aster

word-forming element expressing incomplete resemblance (such as poetaster), usually diminutive and deprecatory, from Latin -aster, from a suffix forming nouns from verbs ending in Greek -azein; in later Latin generalized as a pejorative suffix, as in patraster "he who plays the father."

Entries linking to -aster

poetaster (n.)

"a petty poet, a feeble rhymster, a writer of indifferent verses," 1590s, from French poetastre (1550s), from Latin poeta (see poet) + French-derived -aster, a diminutive (pejorative) suffix. Old Norse had skaldfifl in roughly the same sense. Early modern English had rimester (1580s). Swinburne (1872) used poeticule. Related: Poetastry.

historiaster (n.)

"petty or contemptible historian," 1887, from historian with ending altered to -aster. Coined by W.E. Gladstone, in a review of J. Dunbar Ingram's "History of the Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland."

updated on February 02, 2022

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Dictionary entries near -aster

Astarte

astatic

astatine

asteism

aster

-aster

asterisk

asterism

astern

asteroid

asthenia

© 2001-2023 Douglas Harper