caressive

comparative more caressive · superlative most caressive

1. Having the nature of a caress; gentle, soothing.

   'It's a lovely day, today!' Mrs Bolton would say in her caressive, persuasive voice.

   1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter IX, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 114

   3 more examples

   But the faithful creature [a dog] had soon returned, and comprehending that his mistress was confined in this great stone building, he whined and howled, waiting, within ten feet of the sentinel, a caressive reply.

   1859, Alexandre Dumas, “The Conciergerie”, in L. Lawford, transl., Chateau Rouge; or, The Reign of Terror (Railway Library; 188), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warnes, and Routledge, […], →OCLC, pages 245–246

   Too true that her soft eyes were constantly suffused with tears, and that, when speaking to me, her voice was inexpressibly tender and caressive—her smile so sad, so pitiful, that it would have touched the heart of a tiger!

   1857 October 3, [William Russell], “Kirke Webbe, the Privateer Captain”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, volume VIII, number 196, London; Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers […], →OCLC, chapter X, page 220, column 1

   Under the light she was not so young as the standardized modern frocks assume all women to be, but a woman of thirty, eight years older than the blonde Sadie, who moved automatically to the mirror to take off her hat and make caressive pats at her finely spun hair, while examining her smoothly modelled face with care, a ritual imposed on her by the presence of any mirror.

   1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 2

   Synonyms: comforting, emollient, mollifying

2. human sciencesOf a diminutive: indicating affection or endearment.

   Russian diminutives are of two kinds: caressive and contemptuous; ex. домъ, a house, до́микъ, a pretty little house, домѝшко, a miserable hut.

   1827, James Heard, A Practical Grammar of the Russian Language, St. Petersburg: Printed for the author, and sold by Sleunine, and by Boosey and Sons London, →OCLC, § 69, page 66

   3 more examples

   All diminutives eaſily acquire a careſſive character, as animula, ocellus, &c. the Greeks even called their diminutives ὐποκρισικα; and the ſofter form, lin, rather than kin, would moſt naturally be ſo appropriated.

   1801 September 1, Canakin [pseudonym], “Desultory Comments on Mason’s Supplement to Johnson’s Dictionary”, in The Monthly Magazine, or British Register, volume XII, part II, number 77, London: Printed for Richard Phillips, […], →OCLC, page 98, column 1

   Ling (a termination inherited from the Anglo-Saxons,) is either a diminutive, as little, or descriptive of family, as kind. Hence we have darling, (or dearling,) firstling, foundling, gosling, &c. Some of these have a caressive signification, by recalling to our minds the simplicity of childhood.

   1830, David Booth, “Introduction”, in An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language; … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed and published by J. and C. Adlard, […], →OCLC, page xliii

   Caressive forms and endearments, which are used when addressing someone in an affectionate way, are frequently formed by attaching -kAy to words conveying precious or valued things: (6) a. altın-kay-ım / gold-dim-1pos / 'my precious'

   2015, Fatma Şahan Güney, “Eurasia [Tatar]”, in Nicola Grandi, Lívia Körtvélyessy, editors, Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, part II, page 312

plural caressives

1. human sciencesA type of diminutive indicating affection or endearment.

   One another suffix used as a caressive and appellative is -(l)y. Like -kAy, it is attached to kinship terms, generally to the ones expressing closer relationships.

   2015, Fatma Şahan Güney, “Eurasia [Tatar]”, in Nicola Grandi, Lívia Körtvélyessy, editors, Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, part II, page 312

   2 more examples

   [W]e, like the ancient Mexicans and many another lower race, have terms of praise and endearment,—"a jewel of a babe," and the like,—legions of caressives and diminutives in the use of which some of the Low German dialects are more lavish even than Lowland Scotch.

   1896, Alexander Francis Chamberlain, “The Name Child”, in The Child and Childhood in Folk-thought: (The Child in Primitive Culture), New York, N.Y.; London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 88

   An interesting characteristic of the following extracts is the abundance of diminutives also termed “caressives” in Greek. -άκι, -ίτσα and -ούλα here are derivational suffixes for indexing the diminutive and their use indicates affection, endearment and solidarity serving thus as markers of informal positive politeness[…].

   2010, Mariza Georgalou, “Pathfinding Discourses of Self in Social Network Sites”, in Rotimi Taiwo, editor, Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction: Language Structures and Social Interaction, volume I, Hershey, Pa.: Information Science Reference, →ISBN, section 1 (Discursive Behavior and Social Interaction), page 51, column 1