diminutive suffix waw nun

[SteveMiller]

HALOT says that אִישׁוֹן (pupil [of the eye]) is diminutive of אִישׁ (man) so that the phrase "pupil of the eye" literally means "little man of the eye".
Does that mean that the waw nun suffix makes something diminutive?
Other than possibly אִישׁוֹן, I cannot find another word where a waw nun suffix makes a noun diminutive.

[kwrandolph]

HALOT says that אִישׁוֹן (pupil [of the eye]) is diminutive of אִישׁ (man) so that the phrase "pupil of the eye" literally means "little man of the eye".

Are you sure that HALOT isn’t committing the etymological error here?

Its use seems to be connected with point of darkness.

Does that mean that the waw nun suffix makes something diminutive?

Not that I know of.

Other than possibly אִישׁוֹן, I cannot find another word where a waw nun suffix makes a noun diminutive.

I just looked up several nouns that end with a waw nun, and not one so far has the meaning of diminution.

Karl W. Randolph.

[SteveMiller]

Are you sure that HALOT isn’t committing the etymological error here?

Its use seems to be connected with point of darkness.

That is very good, Karl. That does seem to be the meaning from Prov 7:9 & 20:20.

HALOT bases it on Arabic.

Other than possibly אִישׁוֹן, I cannot find another word where a waw nun suffix makes a noun diminutive.

I just looked up several nouns that end with a waw nun, and not one so far has the meaning of diminution.

Thanks for checking. I searched all nouns ending in waw nun in BibleWorks, and didn't find any either.

[kwrandolph]

Are you sure that HALOT isn’t committing the etymological error here?

HALOT bases it on Arabic.

That’s the problem with cognate languages: sometimes they help, sometimes they lead astray.

In my dictionary, I have them listed separately, without any reference to a supposed common etymology.

Other than possibly אִישׁוֹן, I cannot find another word where a waw nun suffix makes a noun diminutive.

I just looked up several nouns that end with a waw nun, and not one so far has the meaning of diminution.

Thanks for checking. I searched all nouns ending in waw nun in BibleWorks, and didn't find any either.

Thank you, I was getting ready to search all such words in my dictionary. This saves me some time.

I try to be like the Bereans—when a legitimate question like yours comes up, I do research to see if it has any merit. Thank you for the question.

Karl W. Randolph.