What does "め" mean in this case?


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?




め can be a pejorative suffix attached to nouns. It adds a negative meaning or
emphasis of insult to that word.

[This
site](http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/%7Ets/japanese/message/jpnE2lki6zwE2d_2qW-.html)
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](https://jref.com/threads/dishonorifics-question.34315/) 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pejorative_suffix) め. Another way to
call it is "derogatory suffix".

