WORD FORMATION

 Processes
Word formation is the process of creating new words. The following word formation processes result in the creation of new words in English:

 Derivation Back-formation Conversion Compounding Clipping Blending Abbreviations Acronyms

 Eponyms Coinages Nonce words Borrowing Calquing

The following sections define and exemplify the related word formation processes of derivation and back-formation.

Derivation
Derivation is the word formation process in which a derivational affix attaches to the base form of a word to create a new word. Affixes,
which include prefixes and suffixes, are bound morphemes. Morphemes are the smallest linguistic unit of a language with semantic meaning.
Bound morphemes, unlike free morphemes, cannot stand alone but must attach to another morpheme such as a word. For example, the
following two lists provide examples of some common prefixes and suffixes with definitions in English:

Prefixes
 a- – without, not
 co- – together
 de- – opposite, negative, removal, separation
 dis- –opposite, negative
 en- – cause to be
 ex- – former, previous, from
 in- – negative, not
 non- – absence, not
 re- – again, repeatedly
 un- – negative, not, opposite, reversal
Suffixes
 -able – sense of being
 -er – agent
 -ful – characterized by
 -fy – make, become, cause to be
 -ism – action or practice, state or condition
 -less – lack of
 -ly – -like
 -ology – study, science
 -ship – condition, character, skill
 -y – characterized by, inclination, condition
Derivation may result in new words of the same grammatical form, e.g., noun to noun, or of different grammatical forms, e.g., verb to noun.
For example:
Grammatical Form Retaining Derivation
 verb to verb: appear → disappear
 noun to noun: friend → friendship
 adjective to adjective: practical → impractical
 Grammatical Form Changing Derivation
 verb to noun: preserve → preservation
 verb to adjective: bore → boring
 noun to verb: code → codify
 noun to adjective: nature → natural
  adjective to noun: ugly → ugliness
 adjective to verb: sweet → sweeten
 adjective to adverb: quick → quickly
Note that, although both processes involve the affixation of suffixes, derivation differs from inflection in that inflection results in the creation
of a new form of the same word rather than a new word. For example, the addition of the third person singular -s inflectional suffix to verbs
creates the third person singular form of verbs, e.g., eat and eats, and the addition of the plural -s inflectional suffix to nouns creates the
plural form of nouns, e.g., dog and dogs. Both eats and dogs are new forms of the same word, eat and dog, rather than new words.

 Back-Formation
Back-formation is the word formation process in which an actual or supposed derivational affix detaches from the base form of a word to
create a new word. For example, the following list provides examples of some common back-formations in English:

Original – Back-formation
 babysitter – babysit
 donation – donate
 gambler – gamble
 hazy – haze
 moonlighter – moonlight
 obsessive – obsess
 procession – process
 resurrection – resurrect
 sassy – sass
 television – televise
Back-formation is often the result of an overgeneralization of derivation suffixes. For example, the nounback-formation entered the English
lexicon first, but the assumption that the -(at)ion on the end of the word is the -ion derivational suffix results in the creation of the verb back-
form. Back-formation, therefore, is the opposite of derivation.
 For a printable list of more prefixes and suffixes in English, please download English Affixes: Prefixes and Suffixes. For a more complete list
of back-formations in English, please download English Back-Formations Vocabulary List.

WORD FORMATION: CREATING NEW WORDS IN ENGLISH

The articles in this series define and exemplify the most common word formation processes, or the creation of new words, in
English including derivation, back-formation, conversion, compounding, clipping, blending, abbreviations, acronyms, eponyms,
coinages, nonce words, borrowing, and calquing.

What is Clipping?

Clipping is a process of shortening a word by omitting one or two of its parts (i.e. beginning, middle,
or ending letters/syllables) while retaining its original meaning. This word-formation process does not
create new meanings rather it provides stylistic value. Each type is discussed below, from the most
common to the least.

What are the types of Clipping?

Blackclipping (Apocopation) is the loss of one or more syllables at the end of a word.

Examples:
  abs (abdominal muscle)
 app (application)
 bi (bisexual)
 bra (brassiere)
 deb (debutante)
 photo (photograph)
 ep (episode)
 fed (federal)
 gig (gigabyte)
 intro (introduction)
 demo (demonstration)
 hyper (hyperactive)
 expat (expatriate)
 expo (exposition)
 fave (favorite)
 flex (flexible)
 frat (fraternity)
 gas (gasoline)
 glam (glamour/glamorous)
 gov (governor)
 gozz (gossip)
 grad (graduate)
 hanky/hankie (handkerchief)
 fax (facsimile)
 exec (executive)
 binocs (binoculars)

2. Foreclipping

Foreclipping (Aphaeresis) refers to the omission of one or more syllables at the beginning of a
word.

Examples:

 phone (telephone)
 sample (example)
 coon (raccoon)
 gator (alligator)
 burger (hamburger)
 graf (paragraph)
 cid (acid)
  stash (moustache)

3. Middle Clipping

Middle Clipping (Syncope) retains the middle part of a word, getting rid of the beginning and ending
parts.

Examples:

 flu (influenza)
 tec (detective)
 jams (pajamas)
 fridge (refrigerator)

4. Complex Clipping

Complex Clipping is the shortening of a compound word by preserving and combining its initial parts
(or first syllables).

Examples:

 sci-fi (science fiction)

 midcult (middlebrow culture)
 sitcom (situation comedy)
 forex (foreign exchange)
 frag (fragmentation grenade)
 garbo (garbage man)
 govvy (government-run or sponsored)
 grandma (grandmother)
 grandpa (grandfather)
 chum (chamber fellow)
 antilog (antilogarithm)
 perm (permanent wave)
 shrink (head shrinker)

Definition

A blend is a word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two or more other words or
word parts. Also known as a portmanteau word, telescoping, lexical interlocking,
and semantic conflation.
 Blends have been described "underlying compounds." One common type of blend is a full
word followed by a word part (called a splinter), as inmotorcade (motor + cavalcade).
See Examples and Observations below. Also see:

Examples and Observations

affluenza (affluent + influenza) agitprop (agitation + propaganda) alcopop (alcohol + pop)
bash (bat + mash) biopic (biography + picture) Breathalyzer (breath + analyzer)
camcorder (camera + recorder) chexting (cheating + texting) clash (clap + crash)
cosmeceutical (cosmetic + pharmaceutical) docudrama (documentary + drama)
electrocute (electricity + execute) emoticon (emote + icon)
faction (fact + fiction) fanzine (fan + magazine) flare (flame + glare) flirtationship (flirting + relationship)
frenemy (friend + enemy) glimmer (gleam + shimmer)
Globish (global + English)
guitarthritis (guitar + arthritis)
infotainment (information + entertainment)
moped (motor + pedal)
palimony (pal + alimony)
pornacopia (pornography + cornucopia)
sexploitation (sex + exploitation)
sharknado (shark + tornado)
sitcom (situation + comedy)
slanguage (slang + language)
smash (smack + mash)
sportscast (sports + broadcast)
stagflation (stagnation + inflation)
staycation (stay home + vacation)
telegenic (television + photogenic)
textpectation (text message + expectation)
workaholic (work + alcoholic)

 "The useful term globaloney [global + baloney] was coined by none other than Claire Booth
Luce. What she had in mind was gaseous talk about geopolitics, but the term applies equally
well to the way many modern pundits ascribe everything that happens in the world to the
vaguely defined impacts of the global economy."
(Paul Krugman, The Accidental Theorist: And Other Dispatches From the Dismal Science.
W.W. Norton, 1998)

 "When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world."
(Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair, 1870)

 "His attention was directed to them by his host jocosely, and he accepted them seriously as
they drank in jocoserious silence Epps's massproduct, the creature cocoa."
(James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922)
 "[Barack Obama is] a hope-ronaut. He's in a rarefied level of hope where the rest of us have
to take tanks up with us."
(Stephen Colbert, Entertainment Weekly, Oct. 3, 2008)

 Hispandering: manipulating one's rhetoric or actions to court Hispanic voters.

 Overlaps
"Blends typically show overlap in spelling and pronunciation. For example, in wintertainent,
the bold letters belong to both source words: winter andentertainment. In cinemenace,
the m belongs to both words. Sometimes the overlap is not simply of contiguous letters or
sounds: astrocity ← astronaut+ atrocity and flustratred ← flustered + frustrated distribute
overlapping letters (and sounds) noncontiguously."
(Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics, ed. by Keith Allan. Elsevier, 2009)

 A Trend for Blends

"The [1920s] saw the coming of age of the blend--a type of word which is formed by merging
two existing words together. Some still familiar ones had emerged before 1900 (brunch, for
instance, a blend of breakfast and lunch), but it was the 1920s that really started taking a
liking to them. Perhaps the best-known of all dates from then--motel. Chunnel was coined
long before the Channel tunnel itself was constructed (after which its rate of usage seems to
have nosedived), and mirthquake and sexationalism have belied their apparent ephemerality.
Such items are meat and drink to journalists and headline writers, and if you can combine
them with (more or less) cuddly animals, you have neologisms to die for--hence the extensive
press coverage given to swooses (a swan crossed with a goose), tigons (the offspring of a
tiger and a lion), and (later) ligers (1938)."
(John Ayto, A Century of New Words. Oxford University Press, 2007)

 An Ongoing Trend
"Blending is an area of word formation where cleverness can be rewarded by instant
popularity: sexploitation from the seventies, the Chunnel from the eighties are common words
now. . . . [U]npleasant as the phenomena they describe, the words guesstimate, testilying,
pagejacking, spamouflage, compfusion, and explornography will probably elicit a smile."
(R. P. Stockwell and D. Minkova, English Words. Cambridge University Press, 2001)