622: broccoli and broccolini Aug 21, 2016

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To indicate that something is smaller, or less important, many languages have ways of indicating that grammatically. English has the diminutive suffix, '-ish' (see Word Facts post from July 20, 2016), but English also adopts words with the native language's diminutive form. 'Broccoli' is originally an Italian word, and like many Italian words used in English, the singular is rarely used but ends in O. 'Broccolo' means ‘cabbage sprout' in Italian, and is the diminutive of 'brocco' meaning ‘shoot’. 'Broccolini' is a trademark, as it is not natural occurring, but it is an interesting word because the '-ni' acts as a diminutive suffix, so the word has two diminutives attached to it.

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