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In
etymology Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...
, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a
lexical item In lexicography, a lexical item is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words (catena) that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are ''cat'', ''traffic light'', ''take care of'', ''by the way' ...
, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the corresponding root word.Crystal, David. ''A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth Edition'', Blackwell Publishers, 2008. The resulting is called a ''back-formation'', a term coined by James Murray in 1889. ('' Oxford English Dictionary Online'' preserves its first use of 'back-formation' from 1889 in the definition of ''to burgle''; from ''burglar''.) For example, the
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
''resurrection'' was borrowed from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, and the
verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
''resurrect'' was then back-formed hundreds of years later from it by removing the ''-ion''
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
. This segmentation of ''resurrection'' into ''resurrect'' + ''ion'' was possible because
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
had examples of Latin words in the form of verb and verb+''-ion'' pairs, such as ''opine/opinion''. These became the pattern for many more such pairs, where a verb derived from a Latin supine stem and a noun ending in ''ion'' entered the language together, such as ''insert/insertion'', ''project/projection'', etc.


Similar phenomena

Back-formation may be similar to the reanalyses or
folk etymologies Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
when it rests on an erroneous understanding of the morphology of the longer word. For example, the singular noun ''asset'' is a back-formation from the plural ''assets''. However, ''assets'' was not originally a plural; it is a
loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...
from
Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 *Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature *Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 1066 ...
''asetz'' (modern
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
''assez''). The ''-s'' was reanalyzed as a plural suffix. Back-formation varies from clipping – back-formation may change the word's
class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differently ...
or meaning, whereas clipping creates shortened words from longer words, but does not change the class or meaning of the word. Words can sometimes acquire new lexical categories without any derivational change in form (for example, ''
ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...
'' (in the nautical sense) was first a noun and later was used as a verb). That process is called
conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...
or zero-derivation. Like back-formation, it can produce a new noun or a new verb, but it involves no back-forming.


In English

Back-formation may be particularly common in English given that many English words are borrowed from Latin, French and Greek, which together provide English a large range of common affixes. Many words with affixes have entered English, such as ''dismantle'' and ''dishevelled'', so it may be easy to believe that these are formed from roots such as ''mantle'' (assumed to mean "to put something together") and ''shevelled'' (assumed to mean "well-dressed"), although these words have no history of existing in English. Many words came into English by this route: ''pease'' was once a mass noun (as in " pease pudding"), but was reinterpreted as a
plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
, leading to the back-formation ''pea''. The noun ''statistic'' was likewise a back-formation from the field of study ''
statistics Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...
''. In Britain, the verb ''burgle'' came into use in the nineteenth century as a back-formation from ''burglar'' (which can be compared to the
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
n verb ''burglarize'' formed by suffixation). Other examples are * Noun "taxon", a unit of classification in taxonomy, derived from Greek ''taxis'' (arrangement)+''nomia'' "distribution" * Singular "
sastruga Sastrugi, or zastrugi, are features formed by erosion of snow by wind. They are found in polar regions, and in snowy, wind-swept areas of temperate regions, such as frozen lakes or mountain ridges. Sastrugi are distinguished by upwind-facing poi ...
", plural "sastrugi" (from Russian): new Latin-type singular "sastrugus" has been used sometimes * Singular " syringe", from plural "syringes"; the original Greek singular is '' syrinx''. Similar in nature is "
phalange The phalanges (singular: ''phalanx'' ) are digital bones in the hands and feet of most vertebrates. In primates, the thumbs and big toes have two phalanges while the other digits have three phalanges. The phalanges are classed as long bones. ...
", from plural "phalanges"; the original singular being '' phalanx''.. * Singular '' tamale'', from the plural ''tamales''; the original Spanish singular is ''tamal''. * Verb "edit" from ''editor'' * Verbs "euthanase" or "euthanize" from the noun ''euthanasia''. The verb ''translate'' is a back-formation from ''translation'', which is from Latin ''trāns + lāt-'' + ''-tio''. ''Lāt-'' is from the very irregular ( suppletive) verb ''ferō'' 'to carry.' ''Trānslāt-'' in Latin was merely a semi-adjectival form of ''trānsferō'' meaning ' omethinghaving been carried across nto a new language (cf. ''transfer''). The result of the action ''trānsferō textum'' 'to translate a text' was a ''textus trānslātus'' 'a text that has been translated.' Thus the verb in English is really from a (semi-)adjectival form in Latin. Even though many English words are formed this way, new coinages may sound strange, and are often used for humorous effect. For example, ''gruntled'' (from ''disgruntled'') is used only in humorous contexts, as when P. G. Wodehouse wrote, "I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled", or the character Turk in the American sitcom '' Scrubs'' told another character, "I don't disdain you! It's quite the opposite – I dain you." As it happens, ''gruntle'' and ''dain'' are both attested much earlier, but not as antonyms of the longer forms. Back-formations frequently begin in colloquial use and only gradually become accepted. For example, ''enthuse'' (from ''enthusiasm'') is gaining popularity, though today it is still generally considered nonstandard.See "Discussion of enthuse," https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enthuse The immense celebrations in Britain at the news of the relief of the Siege of Mafeking briefly created the verb ''to maffick'', meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly. "Maffick" is a back-formation from ''Mafeking'', a place-name that was treated humorously as a
gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiab ...
or
participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
. There are many other examples of back-formations in the English language.


Place names

As English place names are often British, and hence the study of Celtic scholars, back-formations have occurred in many ways over the centuries owing to English-speaking interpretations. For example, the River Chelmer in Essex is named after the town of Chelmsford (''Chelmeresford'') which is derived from the Saxon personal name ''Cēolmǣr''.


In other languages


Israeli Hebrew

Back-formation in Israeli Hebrew often violates the prescriptive rules of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.See p. 56 in Ghil'ad Zuckermann (2020), '' Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond''
Oxford University Press
/ .
For example: #משאבּ ''masháb'' "resource" (prescriptive form: משאב ''mash'áv'') is a back-formation from the plural form משאבּים ''mashabím''. #עקרבּ ''akráb'' "scorpion" (prescriptive form: עקרב ''‘aqráv'') is a back-formation from the plural form עקרבּים ''akrabím''.


See also

* List of English back-formations * Folk etymology *
Backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
* Retronym * Rebracketing or juncture loss * Onomasiology * Unpaired word


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Back-Formation Linguistic morphology Word coinage