"-ster" meaning in English

See -ster in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Suffix

Etymology: From Middle English -estere, -ester, from Old English -estre (“-ster”, feminine agent suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā, of disputed origin. Cognate with Middle Low German -ester, Dutch -ster. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|-estere}} Middle English -estere, {{m|enm|-ester}} -ester, {{inh|en|ang|-estre|pos=feminine agent suffix|t=-ster}} Old English -estre (“-ster”, feminine agent suffix), {{inh|en|gmw-pro|*-astrijā}} Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā, {{cog|gml|-ester}} Middle Low German -ester, {{cog|nl|-ster}} Dutch -ster Head templates: {{head|en|suffix|cat2=|cat3=|head=|id=}} -ster, {{en-suffix}} -ster
  1. Someone who is, or who is associated with, or who does something specified. Tags: morpheme
    Sense id: en--ster-en-suffix-k70sS1YJ
  2. (humorous, sometimes offensive) A diminutive appended to a person's name. Tags: humorous, morpheme, offensive, sometimes
    Sense id: en--ster-en-suffix-Kv-87YS7 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 11 89
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: -er, -or Derived forms: Baxter, dumpster, huckster, spinster, teamster, youngster

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for -ster meaning in English (2.9kB)

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "Baxter"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "dumpster"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "huckster"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "spinster"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "teamster"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "youngster"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "-estere"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English -estere",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "-ester"
      },
      "expansion": "-ester",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "-estre",
        "pos": "feminine agent suffix",
        "t": "-ster"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English -estre (“-ster”, feminine agent suffix)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*-astrijā"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gml",
        "2": "-ester"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Low German -ester",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "-ster"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch -ster",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English -estere, -ester, from Old English -estre (“-ster”, feminine agent suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā, of disputed origin. Cognate with Middle Low German -ester, Dutch -ster.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "suffix",
        "cat2": "",
        "cat3": "",
        "head": "",
        "id": ""
      },
      "expansion": "-ster",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "-ster",
      "name": "en-suffix"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Someone who is, or who is associated with, or who does something specified."
      ],
      "id": "en--ster-en-suffix-k70sS1YJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "associated",
          "associated"
        ],
        [
          "specified",
          "specified"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "11 89",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1992, Russell Baker, \"Observer; Pretty Good Read\" (review of What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer), New York Times, 25 Jul.,\nCramer's exploration of the hearts, minds and souls of America's ambition-crazed Presidential candidates moves ahead at a pace that feels childishly frantic . . . . This is not just because it keeps referring to Senator Robert Dole as \"the Bobster.\""
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 April 21, John Crace, “Psycho goes down raging: the liberal wokerati finally get to Raab”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "“Never better,” the Raabster spat back. “Just get on with it. What’s the score?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A diminutive appended to a person's name."
      ],
      "id": "en--ster-en-suffix-Kv-87YS7",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "diminutive",
          "diminutive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(humorous, sometimes offensive) A diminutive appended to a person's name."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "morpheme",
        "offensive",
        "sometimes"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "-er"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "-or"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-ster"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English suffixes",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms derived from Old English",
    "English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English terms inherited from Old English",
    "English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "Baxter"
    },
    {
      "word": "dumpster"
    },
    {
      "word": "huckster"
    },
    {
      "word": "spinster"
    },
    {
      "word": "teamster"
    },
    {
      "word": "youngster"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "-estere"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English -estere",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "-ester"
      },
      "expansion": "-ester",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "-estre",
        "pos": "feminine agent suffix",
        "t": "-ster"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English -estre (“-ster”, feminine agent suffix)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*-astrijā"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gml",
        "2": "-ester"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Low German -ester",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "-ster"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch -ster",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English -estere, -ester, from Old English -estre (“-ster”, feminine agent suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā, of disputed origin. Cognate with Middle Low German -ester, Dutch -ster.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "suffix",
        "cat2": "",
        "cat3": "",
        "head": "",
        "id": ""
      },
      "expansion": "-ster",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "-ster",
      "name": "en-suffix"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Someone who is, or who is associated with, or who does something specified."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "associated",
          "associated"
        ],
        [
          "specified",
          "specified"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English humorous terms",
        "English offensive terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1992, Russell Baker, \"Observer; Pretty Good Read\" (review of What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer), New York Times, 25 Jul.,\nCramer's exploration of the hearts, minds and souls of America's ambition-crazed Presidential candidates moves ahead at a pace that feels childishly frantic . . . . This is not just because it keeps referring to Senator Robert Dole as \"the Bobster.\""
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 April 21, John Crace, “Psycho goes down raging: the liberal wokerati finally get to Raab”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "“Never better,” the Raabster spat back. “Just get on with it. What’s the score?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A diminutive appended to a person's name."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "diminutive",
          "diminutive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(humorous, sometimes offensive) A diminutive appended to a person's name."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "morpheme",
        "offensive",
        "sometimes"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "-er"
    },
    {
      "word": "-or"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-ster"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.