What is the meaning of this part?

[AUTOMOON]

When I was looking up the word "diminutive" in my dictionary, I found the explanation was beyond my comprehension.
Diminutive: implying smallness, either actual or imputed in token of affection, scorn, etc.
I don't know what "imputed in token of" means.

 

[isedehi]

When I was looking up the word "diminutive" in my dictionary, I found the explanation was beyond my comprehension.
Diminutive: implying smallness, either actual or imputed in token of affection, scorn, etc.
I don't know what "imputed in token of" means.

i believe you still have that dictionary. why don't you go ahead and check the meaning of the other words you do not know. that will help.

 

[AUTOMOON]

Here I prefer a human being's answer as opposed to a dead dictionary.
By the way, I have tried but failed. I don't know what it means under this context.

 

[AUTOMOON]

Diminutive means small. The diminutive form of the name Robert is Bob. The diminutive form of the name Arthur is Art. The castle in Disneyland is a diminutive form of a castle in Germany. The word droplet can be understood, in the diminutive form, as drop. A man can call his wife Hon instead of Honey.

I see, thanks, but you seems to be scratching the wrong leg.
I asked about the "imputed in token of" part.

 

[tedtmc]

When I was looking up the word "diminutive" in my dictionary, I found the explanation was beyond my comprehension.
Diminutive: implying smallness, either actual or imputed in token of affection, scorn, etc.
I don't know what "imputed in token of" means.

I think I know why you are confused.
You should have read it as:

imputed, in token of affection, or scorn

which means

the word 'diminutive' (smallish) is attributed or described, based on personal perception, in an affectionate or scornful way, rather than based on the fact that something is small.

 

[AUTOMOON]

I understand what you wrote but find the meaning is not what I can find in the dictionary. Impute usually means ascribe something bad to something or someone. But what you wrote seemed to mean a implied meaning.
I don't know the meaning of "imputed in token of" in the context"either actual or ....".

 

[Tdol]

It doesn't have to be negative- it can just be a characteristic.
The smallness does not have to be real- calling someone Tom or Bob does not imply that they are small- the word has been shortened for reasons of affection, etc.

 

[tedtmc]

I don't know the meaning of "imputed in token of" in the context"either actual or ....".

As I said in my previous post, it is impossible to interpret the phrase by itself.

 

[AUTOMOON]

It doesn't have to be negative- it can just be a characteristic.
The smallness does not have to be real- calling someone Tom or Bob does not imply that they are small- the word has been shortened for reasons of affection, etc.

That makes a point to me. So we cant rely totally on dictionary.

 

[tedtmc]

That makes a point to me (I get the point). So we cant rely totally on (the) dictionary.

We can, most of the time. Where you are not clear with the explanation from one dictionary, you can always look for alternative explanation in other dictionaries.