39. _The Latin Termination "aster."_--Can any of your correspondents
tell me why the termination _aster_ is used in a depreciatory sense in
Latin, as _poetaster_, a bad poet; _oleaster_, the wild olive;
_pinaster_, the wild pine? With regard to this latter substantive, I
have seen the mistake made in a descriptive catalogue of the pine
species, of calling this the _star pine_; but I have no doubt that it
was named _pinaster_, as inferior to the stone pine, or _Pinus pinea_,
which embellishes the Italian gardens, while the _pinaster_ flourishes
on the mountains and the sea-coast.
Probably other examples may be found where the terminal _aster_ is used
in a similar sense.