Take almost any common noun that you can make into an adjective by adding -y (air, beer, cat, dough, earth, fish). The adjective always expresses a disagreeable or negative aspect of the noun’s meaning. Some exceptions of course (snowy). I wrote a little rhyme about this once:
|
This is a provincial province: Brassy brass, tinny tin, Womanly women, dressy dresses, Hearty hearts, skinny skin; Winey wine, watery water, Earthy earth, stony stone, Fruity fruit, flowery flowers, Fleshy flesh, bony bone; Soupy soup, sugary sugar, Fishy fish, beery beer; Glassy glass, leathery leather, Smelly smells and hairy hair. The point of all this double Dutch? Why do we hate ourselves so much? |
And here is another curiosity: you can describe a man as 'manly' and a woman as 'womanly', but only a woman would be described as 'mannish' and only a man as 'womanish'.