linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, a clipped compound is a word produced from a

compound word In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or Sign language, sign) that consists of more than one Word stem, stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. C ...

by reducing its parts while retaining the meaning of the original compound.Elisa Mattiello, "An Introduction to English Slang: A Description of Its Morphology, Semantics and Sociology", 2008, ,
pp. 146-148
/ref> It is a special case of a type of

word formation In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either: * the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or * the creation of new lexemes in a particular language Morphological A common method of word form ...

called clipping. Clipped compounds are common in various

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

and

jargon Jargon, or technical language, is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular Context (language use), communicative context and may not be well understood outside ...

vocabularies, but they are not specific to those. Examples in English include '' sci fi'', '' comp sci'', '' lab tech'', and '' surg tech''. A clipped compound word is linguistically a type of

blend word In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

. The nature of its morphology and orthography (i.e., solid, hyphenated, or open compound) is subject to the linguistic forces seen with other compounds. Like other blends, clipped compounds may be made of two or more components. However, a blend may have a meaning independent of its components' meanings (e.g.,

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the Parking lot, parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central Lobby (room), lo ...

<— ''motor'' + ''hotel''), while in a clipped compound the components already serve the function of producing a compound meaning (for instance, pulmotor <— ''pulmonary'' + ''motor''). In addition, a clipped compound may drop one component completely: ''hard'' instead of ''hard labor'', or ''mother'' for ''motherfucker'' (a process called

ellipsis The ellipsis (, plural ellipses; from , , ), rendered , alternatively described as suspension points/dots, points/periods of ellipsis, or ellipsis points, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot,. According to Toner it is difficult to establish when t ...

). Laurie Bauer suggests the following ''ad hoc'' distinction for English: If the word has compound stress, it is a clipped compound; if it has single-word stress, it is a blend. The meaning of ''clipped compound'' may overlap with that of

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

. In the

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

, a clipped compound may acquire one or more extra suffixes that indicate the intended grammatical form of the formed word. In particular, the suffix ''-k'' is commonly used, for example, in ''askorbinka'' (from ''askorbinovaya kislota'' (i.e.,

ascorbic acid Ascorbic acid is an organic compound with formula , originally called hexuronic acid. It is a white solid, but impure samples can appear yellowish. It dissolves freely in water to give mildly acidic solutions. It is a mild reducing agent. Asco ...

)). In Japanese, clipped compounds are very commonly used to shorten long, either coined or wholly borrowed, compounds (see also

Japanese phonology Japanese phonology is the system of sounds used in the pronunciation of the Japanese language. Unless otherwise noted, this article describes the standard variety of Japanese based on the Tokyo dialect. There is no overall consensus on the nu ...

and transcription into Japanese). For instance, a

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...

(ワードプロセッサ ''wādo purosessa'') may be referred to as simply ワープロ ''wāpuro'',

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

(セクシャルハラスメント ''sekusharu harasumento'') as セクハラ ''sekuhara'', the program Clip Studio Paint (クリップスタジオペイント ''Kurippu Sutajio Peinto'') as クリスタ ''Kurisuta'', the video game series '' Monster Hunter'' (モンスターハンター ''Monsutā Hantā'') as モンハン ''Monhan'', the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(国際連合 ''Kokusai Rengō'') as 国連 ''Kokuren'', and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(ソビエト連邦 ''Sobieto Renpō'') as ソ連 ''Soren''.

Clipped compound place names

Clipped compounds are sometimes used in place names. * English: The Delmarva Peninsula is named for the US states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia (from the traditional abbreviation ''Va.''). Several

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

neighborhoods are clipped compounds including

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

("South of Houston"),

Noho NoHo, short for "North of Houston Street, Houston Street" (as contrasted with SoHo), is a primarily residential neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded by Mercer Street (Manhattan), Mercer Street to the west, the Bowery ...

("North of Houston"), Tribeca ("Triangle Below Canal Street"), Nolita ("North of Little Italy") and

Nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

("North of Madison Square"). * Chinese: The Chinese city of

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

takes its name from a clipped compound of the "Three Towns of Wuhan": Wuchang contributes "Wu", whereas Hankou and Hanyang both contribute "Han." * Japanese: In Japanese, city names are often combined in a clipped compound with alternative readings of the characters, especially for combined regions or for train lines between cities. Most often the kan-on readings (most common readings in

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

compounds) are used for the compounds, while the place names use other readings. For example, the and region is called , as is a major train line connecting them ( Keihan Electric Railway), replacing the go-on reading and

kun'yomi is the way of reading kanji characters using the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. This pronunciation is contrasted with ''on'yomi'', which is the reading based on the original Chi ...

with the kan-on readings and . The larger region, including , is similarly called , the go-on reading replacing the kun'yomi . * Hebrew: In Hebrew, there are many words that are clipped compounds and other types of abbreviations. Since in Jewich writing system the vowels are usually omitted, the resulting word may sound differently: "mabas" for "base commander" is made of ("mefaked basis").https://www.outibatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Gila-MA-Thesis.pdf
AbbreviationsL A Unified Analysis of Acronym Words, Clippings, Clipped Compounds, ad Hypocoristics
2002 Another example: רמזור (traffic light) is רמז (hint) plus אור (light). * Multi-lingual: The Benelux Union takes its name from its component nations, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. * The African country

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

has a name that combines the names of the two states that unified to create the country: Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

References

{{reflist

Clipped compound place names

See also

References

Further reading