You’ve probably used a pet name or a term of endearment — often a diminutive, like “Izzy” for Isabel or “Peg” for Margaret. Such terms are known as hypocorisms. The word comes from Ancient Greek; according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the prefix “hypo-” can refer to making something smaller, and “korizesthai” can mean “to caress” or “show affection for.” I was first introduced to the concept by Jon Bois’s documentary, “The Bob Emergency,” a study of professional athletes named Bob. Bois says, “If someone is named Bob, it’s a safe bet that someone out there really loves them.” I really enjoy this notion that love for other people leads us to find cute names for them. Interestingly, though, a hypocorism does not have to refer exclusively to other people. At least in the United States, perhaps the most well known shortened name for something is “soccer,” which comes from university students’ shortening of “association football.” Australians in particular are known for their love of these kinds of short names, to the point that there’s an entire Wikipedia page that lists them. A “servo ” is a gas station, a “sparky" is an electrician, a “bluey” is an Australian Cattle dog (nicknamed “the blue heeler"). There are plenty more. I don’t think people have the same level of affection for dogs or family members as they do for gas stations, which leaves me wondering why people choose to find nicknames for them. My best guess is that it’s just fun when something mundane has a silly name. These types of affectionate terms exist in many different languages, too; the -ito suffix in Spanish, for example. In Mandarin Chinese, words are often doubled in colloquial forms. I think the real lesson here is that there’s a benefit to being just a little less serious. What are your favorite pet names? Email us: crosswordeditors@nytimes.com
From the Archive
Puzzle of the WeekThis week, check out Jill Singer’s puzzle from Thursday, Oct. 1. In the Wordplay column, Sean McGowan wrote: “Did you knock Monday’s puzzle out of the park? Today’s grid is here to throw you a curveball. Thursday is The New York Times’s favorite day of the week to publish crosswords with twists, surprises or extra layers of trickery to puzzle over. Today’s fun comes from Jill Singer, her first Thursday offering and her fourth puzzle for The Times overall. It’s a closed-off grid with sequestered chunks and guarded corners, so solvers may have to bounce around a bit to complete it. Keep plugging away, and I promise the puzzle will fall. It’s designed to.”
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