Lõo (Lõo)

Short for Lõoke and Lõokene, see Lõokese, where both the ‑ke and ‑kene endings are diminutives, short and long form respectively. An odd word of Proto-Germanic origin, *laiwarikōn- or, *laiwazikōn-, losing the ‘w’ to give Eng. ‘lark’, Swed. lärkor, Ger. Lerchen, etc., as well as lõo and leevike (see Leevikese) and does not appear to exist as a standalone word anymore. Estonian diminutives are to linguists what “the one that got away” is to anglers, magnifying (or minimizing) with each telling, in which another level of diminution can be tacked onto the previous one recursively, as a form or re-emphasis, and ‘some people’, mentioning no names, suspect that the long-form ‑kene diminutive is nothing less than a ‑ne diminutive of the ‑ke diminutive. Ignoring the yellow polka-dots for the minute (if you’ll excuse the pun), an “itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini” (plural in Est., dammit) could, under very strained circumstances, translate as bikiinikesekesekesekesed – (Don’t!) – although they’d probably say pisikesekesekesekesed bikiinid. Or not. WTF…