ish at the end of everything and you’ll always be right

2019- 2021

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‘-ish’ is largely used for three purposes: 

1. to form adjectives and nouns that say what country or area a person, thing, or language comes from, 

2. to form adjectives that say what a person, thing, or action is like,

3. to form adjectives to give the meaning to some degree; fairly. ( Cambridge dictionary ) 

 

With regard to the third purpose, ’-ish’ is mainly used as an expression to describe something close enough but decisively different and often negative. It can be compared to the similarly used suffix ‘-like’ (ex: childish / childlike, adultish / adult-like). ‘-ish’ can be both ‘almost’ and ‘barely,’ which is contradictory in itself. 

 

 

Because of this quality, ‘-ish’ can be used in many circumstances and softly evades specificity. I am focusing on this word in order to visualize almost but barely delivered thoughts.