-nik

From the Slavic suffix represented by Russian -ник (-nik). This suffix experienced a surge in English coinages for nicknames and diminutives after the 1957 Soviet launch of the first Sputnik satellite. English usage is heavily influenced by Yiddish usage of ־ניק‎ (-nik) and similar borrowed words (nogoodnik, nudnik, kibbutznik).

-nik

1. Creates a nickname for a person who exemplifies, endorses, or is associated with the thing or quality specified (by the base form), often a particular ideology or preference.

• Kabakchi, V. V.; Doyle, Charles Clay (Autumn 1990), “Of Sputniks, Beatniks, and Nogoodniks”, in American Speech‎, volume 65, issue 3, JSTOR 455919, pages 275-278

• -kin, -kin-, Kin, ink, k'in, kin

Compare Latvian -nieks and Russian -ник (-nik).

-nik (genitive -niku, partitive -nikku)

1. Forms occupational agent nouns. (non-productive)

   kiri "text" → kirjanik "writer"

   aed "garden" → aednik "gardener"

   kunst "art" → kunstnik "artist"

-nik (plural -nikan)

1. arm

   ingodonik — one arm; one armlength

   midaasonik — ten arms; ten armlengths

   jiiskinikebizon — bracelet; garter

   minikeyaab — armband; bracelet

   ninik — my arm

   gichinik — right hand

• -nike

-nik m

1. Forms masculine nouns referring to a performer of some action, sometimes a device; -er

Personal nouns:

Impersonal nouns:

• -nica f

From Proto-Slavic *-(ь)nikъ, itself originally by nominalization of adjectives in *-ьnъ with the suffix *-ikъ (whence -ik). The suffix originates from the Proto-Balto-Slavic period; compare with dialectal Lithuanian lauk-inykas (“peasant, farmer”) (from laũkas (“field”)) and Old Prussian lauk-inikis (“vassal”).

-nik (Cyrillic spelling -ник)

1. Suffix appended to nominal stems to create a masculine noun, usually denoting a professional, performer, adherent, place, object, tool or a feature.

• -enik
• -ovnik
• -evnik

• -ik
• -ica

• Skok, Petar (1971) Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (in Serbo-Croatian), volume I, Zagreb: JAZU, page 515