-aster

suffix

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

“poet + -aster → poetaster (“unskilled poet”)”

OriginLatin -aster →
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

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

    poet + -aster → poetaster (“unskilled poet”)

    2 more examples

    critic + -aster → criticaster (“petty critic”)

    pillar + -aster → pilaster (“pillar that does not provide support”)

Origin

  1. Latin-aster“little, petty, partial, incomplete”
  2. English-aster

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

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Esperanto -eto, -aĉo
  • -eto-aster
  • -aĉo-aster
French -âtre
  • -âtre-aster
Portuguese -astro, -acho
  • -astro-aster
  • -acho-aster
Spanish -astro, -astra
  • -astro-aster
  • -astra-aster
  • -astre-aster
Cite this entry
APA

-aster. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-aster

MLA

“-aster.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-aster. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “-aster,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-aster.

Source: -aster on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.