Where does “sonny” come from?

Sonny derives from English son plus the Middle English diminutive suffix -y, from Middle French -ie, from Latin -ia, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -kos, a suffix forming diminutives and agent nouns.

sonny (English): a familiar form of address for a boy; form of...

Definitions

  1. a familiar form of address for a boy; form of...

Ancestry of “sonny”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishSơn—
2Middle Englishsoneson; soon; Alternative form of sonne
3Old Englishsōnaimmediately, at once
4Proto-West Germanicsān(ō)immediately
5Proto-Germanicsēna—
6Proto-Germanic*sa—
7Proto-Austronesian*əsa—
8Proto-Oceanic*isa—

Words derived from “sonny”

Every word from Proto-Oceanic *isa →