-iĉo

-iĉo

See also: ico, Ico, iĉo, iço, and -ico

Esperanto

Etymology

Derived by analogy with the masculine suffix -ĉj- and the feminine suffixes -nj- and -ino.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈit͡ʃo]
• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -it͡ʃo
• Hyphenation: i‧ĉo

Suffix

-iĉo

1. (neologism) of masculine sex[1]

Usage notes

A controversial neologism that is not formally recognized, but increasingly tolerated. Derives the masculine form of a word, parallel to feminine -ino, for example:

bovo (“a head of cattle”) → boviĉo (“bull”) / bovino (“cow”)

The derived terms iĉo (“a male individual”) and iĉa (“male, masculine”) are more commonly used than the actual suffix itself.

A widespread more traditional convention to designate male animals is to form compounds with vir- (from viro (“man”)), such as virbovo for bull, though this requires neologisms for man-animal chimeras, such as minotaŭro (“minotaur”). To designate male members of a profession, it is common to use the adjective vira (“male”), such as vira kelnero for a male waiter.

Usage of the suffix -iĉo can be divided in three groups based on how one deals with traditionally male roots:

1. Traditionally male roots are used in a gender-neutral way, changing the meanings of patro from “father” to “parent”, frato from “brother” to “sibling”, etc. To make their male equivalents, -iĉo is applied. (patriĉo for “father”, fratiĉo for “brother”, etc.) This approach was the most common among early adopters of the suffix, and is heavily criticized by a significant number of speakers as being a too drastic reform of the language.
2. The suffix is used with traditionally male roots for purely stylistic symmetry with words that end in the feminine suffix -ino. (E.g. viriĉo and virino for “man” and “woman”, patriĉo and patrino for “father” and “mother”, etc.) In this approach the forms viriĉo and patriĉo are considered to be synonymous with the traditional viro (“man”) and patro (“father”).
3. The suffix is avoided with traditionally male roots, preserving their traditional meanings. It is only applied to root words that are not already explicitly male, e.g. junulo (“young person”) → junuliĉo (“young man”) and amiko (“friend”) → amikiĉo (“male friend”). This approach has become most common as usage of the suffix spread.

Sometimes the third approach is combined with gender-neutral neologisms, such as the already somewhat established parento (“parent”) and spozo (“spouse”), or new proposed roots such as eŝo (“spouse”) and nievo (“nibling”), or pajtro (“parent”) and ejdzo (“spouse”)..

Some authors, such as Jorge Camacho and Luiz Portella, have published books using this suffix.

Synonyms

• vir-
• vira

Antonyms

• -ino (“female”)

See also

Gender reform in Esperanto on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Esperanto terms suffixed with -iĉo

References

1. Wennergren, Bertilo (2020-11-14), “IĈ°”, in Plena Manlibro de Esperanta Gramatiko‎ (in Esperanto), retrieved 2021-03-18