The Hebrew suffix ־וֹן is similar to the English suffix “-tion” which is used to construct a noun from a verbal root; other examples are פִּתְרוֹן pitron (an interpretation, from the root פתר) and פִּקָּדוֹן pikkadon (a deposit, from the root פקד). This suffix can also have the sense of a diminutive, so that a “shabbaton” is, in a sense, a “lesser shabbat”—lesser in the sense that the restrictions that obtain on a festival are less severe than those that apply on a Saturday (and the punishment for violating them is also correspondingly less severe).


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