In the book I'm reading, a boy is looking for a tomato, he says "トマトめトマトめ どこ行ったの". What does "め" mean in this case?
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The sentence doesn't sound super natural as today's Japanese. Could you provide the whole paragraph or so for the context? – broccoli forest Aug 17 '22 at 02:57
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1Possible duplicate of: Meaning behind adding 'め' after someone's name? – chocolate Aug 17 '22 at 13:41
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め can be a pejorative suffix attached to nouns. It adds a negative meaning or emphasis of insult to that word.
This site shows a couple examples:
馬鹿め! (Bakame!/You idiot!)
Hence you could translate the sentence as: "Stupid tomato, stupid tomato! Where'd you go!". It is also a personification of that tomato, since the boy is addressing his tomato directly.
Some forum users use the word "dishonorific", but it doesn't seem to be a word that is generally accepted, known, or relevant.
As Eiríkr Útlendi pointed out in the comments, the correct term for the process of a neutral word becoming "rude" is called pejoration ("make worse"). The word itself is then called a pejorative. Pejoration is applied to トマト through the attachment of the pejorative suffix め. Another way to call it is "derogatory suffix".
SevenOclock
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2I think “pejorative” is more widely used and understood than “dishonorific”. – Eiríkr Útlendi Aug 17 '22 at 08:57
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1jisho.org describes 奴/め as "derogatory suffix", which I think would also be a fitting description. – Salem Aug 17 '22 at 13:24
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