-ish

Today we are going to do something a little different and talk about a suffix. “-ish” modifies words to mean approximately or similar to. It usually modifies adjectives, but it can also modify nouns.

Example (approximately): Let’s meet at the café around 4ish.
Example (similar to): I am hungryish.

Ish can exist as a word on its own as well. However, it is really only used when the word that is being modified is already known. So, if someone asks if the building is tall, you do not have to say, “it is tallish.” You can just say, “Yes, ish.”

The reason we are taking a look at this is because my co-worker just learned it. After asking a few other Korean co-workers, I realized that it is not well-known. We use -ish a lot in English informally. It says that something is close but not exactly. So, if someone asks if something is blue, but you think it is mint-blue or sky-blue, you might call it “bluish”.

-ish first appears in the OED in 1986. In the 1990s -ish started to be used in novels by English-born and Irish-born writers. Ish made its way to America in 2002 when Jeremy Langmead was quoted in the New York Times. In 2003, ish found its way into the urban dictionary and soon rose in popularity.

The reason why this suffix is so interesting is because it is included in other words where it is not a suffix. That might be difficult to understand, so let me use some examples. Ish comes from Old English, “-isc”, meaning from a country. That is why people from Denmark are called Danish and people from Spain are called Spanish. There are also words ending in ish that come from Old French. In Old French, -ish was just a closing suffix. These words include finish, punish, and abolish.

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