-ese
a suffix forming adjectival derivatives of place names, especially countries or cities; frequently used nominally to denote the inhabitants of the place or their language: Faroese; Japanese; Vietnamese; Viennese. By analogy with such language names, -ese occurs in coinages denoting in a disparaging, often facetious way a characteristic jargon, style, or accent: Brooklynese; bureaucratese; journalese; computerese.
RELATED CONTENT
Why Are People From The Netherlands Called Dutch?A demonym is any name derived from a place that helps describe people who live there. Californians are people who live in California. Frenchmen live in France. And so on. But what about the demonyms that are seemingly random? How the heck did people from the Netherlands become the Dutch, for example? Where Dutch came from Before we dig into this demonym, there are three terms …
Origin of -ese
probably orig. < Italian -ese, later representing Spanish, Portuguese -es, French -ais, -ois, all < Latin -ēnsem -ensis
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for -ese
-ese
suffix forming adjectives, suffix forming nouns
indicating place of origin, language, or styleCantonese; Japanese; journalese
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012