diminutize

Verb

diminutize (third-person singular simple present diminutizes, present participle diminutizing, simple past and past participle diminutized)

1. To put (a word, name) in a diminutive form.
   • […] her name is Concepcion, diminutized: Concha […]1904, Annetta Halliday-Antona, “Women Gem-Workers of the Far East”, in Gustav Stickley, Volume Six, editors, The Craftsman, page 143
   • […] Marie Antoinette is referred to in the literature of the Revolution as the “Widow Capet”—a title containing no name of her own or any she herself had ever used. Elsewhere her given name is diminutized as “Toinon” and “Toinette.”2000, Robin Lakoff, chapter 5, in The Language War, Berkeley: University of California Press, page 192
2. To make (someone or something) appear smaller (often in a figurative sense).
   • You must remember that it takes two to make a bargain. On your side you look through a telescope so that it will magnify the value of your holdings, while the buyer, on the contrary, looks through the reverse end of the instrument so as to diminutize it as much as possible.1898, James Blanchard Clews, chapter 9, in Fortuna: A Story of Wall Street, New York: J.S. Ogilvie, page 81
   • The lady owner came out of the store, snatched the ticket from the windscreen, flung it to the ground and screamed: ‘You silly little man!’ at the warden, who was completing his entry of the offence in his book. He was of average height, but the rich invariably diminutize those who upset them.1986, Jim Godbolt, All This and Many a Dog, London: Northway, revised edition, 2007, Part Two, Chapter 2, p. 140