Decoding your Dictionary: How Words Are Formed

Chona
Jul 14
3 min read

Have you ever wondered how words are formed? How did we start “googling” stuff instead of just saying: use the Google search engine? How did we know what “on fleek” meant when it probably didn’t mean anything to our grandparents? Words are the foundation of any language, and they find their way into the lexicon through various means.

Photo by Pixabay

The study of word formation falls under the branches of morphology and lexicology in linguistics. All words are composed of sound segments called morphemes. Morphemes can be words, affixes, roots, etc., combined to make new words. Here are 10 ways in which new words are formed.

1. Clipping

As the term suggests, clipping shortens a word while keeping the original word’s meaning.

Examples:

ad from “advertisement”
exam from “examination”
petrol from “petroleum”

2. Blending

Blending involves the combination of two or more parts of words to create a new one. The new word often has a meaning derived from the words it takes from.

Examples:

breakfast + lunch = brunch
spoon + fork = spork
simultaneous + broadcast = simulcast

3. Coinage

This word formation process is not actually a process. Coinage involves words making it to the lexicon accidentally or deliberately because of popular usage.

Examples:

Google
Xerox
Kleenex

4. Borrowing

As it suggests, borrowing involves the usage of words that come from foreign languages. Sometimes, words are directly borrowed and used in a different language as is. Other times, they are borrowed and then translated. The process that involves translating borrowed terms is called calquing.

Examples:

quid pro quo (Latin)
fjord (Norwegian)
smorgasbord (Swedish)
scapegoat (from Hebrew ez ozel)
beer garden (from German biergarten)
blue blood (from Spanish sangre azul)

5. Compounding

This process involves the combination of two or more existing words to create a new one. They can be written with hyphens between them, as separate words with spaces, or just combined terms without separation.

Examples:

breastfeed
editor-in-chief
ice cream

6. Backformation

Backformation is the creation of new words by removing an affix from a long word. Unlike clipping, words that are backformed have a different part of speech from the original.

Examples:

donation (n.), donate (v.)
babysitter (n.), babysit (v.)
television (n.), televise (v.)

7. Conversion

Conversion is taking one word and converting it into a different part of speech without making any changes. Technically, no new words are created, only new meanings.

Examples:

butter (from noun to verb)
cheat (verb to noun)
final (adjective to noun)

8. Acronyms

Acronyms create new words by pronouncing initialisms as words. An initialism is a form of abbreviation that takes the first letters of a word or a phrase.

Examples:

AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave)
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
Scuba (Self-contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus)

9. Eponyms

Eponyms are words created from proper names. Unlike coinage, which takes words from any foreign language, eponyms come from names of real or fictitious people.

Examples:

pasteurize (v.) – Louis Pasteur
sadistic (adj.) – Marquis de Sade
sandwich (n.) – John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich

10. Derivation

Derivation is a process similar to backformation. In this process, however, an affix is added to an already existing word to create a new one.

Examples:

nature – natural (noun to adjective)
sweet – sweeten (noun to verb)
happy – happily (adjective to adverb)
code – codify (noun to verb)

Loved learning about this? Explore more language tips and literary gems in our other features. If you're a writer looking to add polish and personality to your manuscript, look no further. Send your manuscript to themanuscripteditor.com for a free 800-word sample. Let's turn your words into something truly unforgettable!

Sources: