ċkejken

Etymology
Diminutive of older, still found in placenames.

Probably from a now lost variant of, of uncertain origin, but with related forms throughout Romance. To the Maltese form compare especially 🇨🇬, further also 🇨🇬 and, 🇨🇬 and , all meaning “small, little”. The initial ċ- could go back to pre-Sicilian pl- (*pliccunu), from a metathesis, or it could be due to a merger with, among other possibilities.

Lameen Souag (2018) proposes an alternative derivation from the eastern word in 🇨🇬 etc. This would have been borrowed into dialectal  as, which looks like a passive participle from a root š-k-n. What speaks in favour of this, is the extensive development of the root in Maltese; on the whole, however, the Romance etymology probably remains the more plausible, particularly as no such root seems to be attested in Maghrebi Arabic.

Adjective

 * 1) small, little