-nik

From the Slavic suffix represented by Russian -ник (-nik). This suffix experienced a surge in English coinages for nicknames and diminutives after the 1957 Soviet launch of the first Sputnik satellite. English usage is heavily influenced by Yiddish usage of ־ניק‎ (-nik) and similar borrowed words (nogoodnik, nudnik, kibbutznik).

-nik

1. Creates a nickname for a person who exemplifies, endorses, or is associated with the thing or quality specified (by the base form), often a particular ideology or preference.

• Kabakchi, V. V.; Doyle, Charles Clay (Autumn 1990), “Of Sputniks, Beatniks, and Nogoodniks”, in American Speech‎, volume 65, issue 3, →JSTOR, pages 275-278

• -kin, -kin-, Kin, ink, k'in, kin

• -enik

-nik

1. Negative polarity item used to form relative clauses, that

   Ez dut esan etorriko direnik. ― I didn't say that they'll come.

The form taken by this clitic depends on the ending of the verbal form to which it is attached, see the usage notes at -n.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Compare Ingrian -nikka, Latvian -nieks and Russian -ник (-nik).

-nik (genitive -niku, partitive -nikku)

1. Forms occupational agent nouns. (non-productive)

   ‎kiri (“text”) + ‎-nik → ‎kirjanik (“writer”)

   ‎aed (“garden”) + ‎-nik → ‎aednik (“gardener”)

   ‎kunst (“art”) + ‎-nik → ‎kunstnik (“artist”)

From Proto-Slavic *-nikъ.

• IPA^(key): /nʲik/

-nik m

1. Forms masculine nouns referring to a performer of some action, sometimes a device; -er

   ‎rězaś (“to cut”) + ‎-nik → ‎rěznik (“butcher”)

Animate nouns:

Inanimate nouns:

• -nica f

-nik (plural -nikan, obligatorily possessed)

1. arm

• gichinik (“right hand”)
• ginik (“your arm”)
• ingodonik (“one arm; one armlength”)
• jiiskinikebizon (“bracelet; garter”)
• midaasonik (“ten arms; ten armlengths”)
• minikeyaab (“armband; bracelet”)
• ninik (“my arm”)
• onik (“his arm”)

• -nik-
• -nike-

• The Ojibwe People's Dictionary https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/main-entry/ninik-nid

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *-nikъ.

• IPA^(key): /ɲik/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ik
• Syllabification: nik

-nik m

1. Forms masculine nouns referring to a performer of some action, sometimes a device; -er

   ‎rola + ‎-nik → ‎rolnik

Personal nouns:

Impersonal nouns:

• -nik in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• -nik in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From Proto-Slavic *-nikъ, *-ьnikъ, itself originally by nominalization of adjectives in *-ьnъ with the suffix *-ikъ (whence -ik). The suffix originates from the Proto-Balto-Slavic period; compare with dialectal Lithuanian lauk-inykas (“peasant, farmer”) (from laũkas (“field”)) and Old Prussian lauk-inikis (“vassal”).

-nik (Cyrillic spelling -ник)

1. Suffix appended to nominal stems to create a masculine noun, usually denoting a professional, performer, adherent, place, object, tool or a feature.

• -ik
• -ica

• Skok, Petar (1971) Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (in Serbo-Croatian), volume I, Zagreb: JAZU, page 515