-aster

Used to form diminutive and pejorative nouns, labeling someone pretending to be what they are not.

Suffix

  1. Used to form diminutive and pejorative nouns, labeling someone pretending to be what they are not.
    • poet + -aster → poetaster (“unskilled poet”)
    • critic + -aster → criticaster (“petty critic”)
    • pillar + -aster → pilaster (“pillar that does not provide support”)

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin -aster (“little, petty, partial, incomplete”).