A hybrid word or hybridism is a
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...
that
etymologically derives from at least two languages. Such words are a type of
macaronic language.
Common hybrids
The most common form of hybrid word in
English combines
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and
Greek parts. Since many
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
es and
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 and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
es in English are of Latin or Greek
etymology
Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...
, it is straightforward to add a prefix or suffix from one language to an English word that comes from a different language, thus creating a hybrid word.
Hybridisms were formerly often considered to be
barbarisms.
[, ''s.v.'' 'barbarism']
English examples
*
Antacid
An antacid is a substance which neutralization (chemistry), neutralizes gastric acid, stomach acidity and is used to relieve heartburn, indigestion, or an upset stomach. Some antacids have been used in the treatment of constipation and diarrhe ...
– from Greek () 'against' and Latin
acidus 'acid'; this term dates back to 1732.
*
Aquaphobia – from Latin 'water' and Greek () 'fear'; this term is distinguished from the non-hybrid word ''
hydrophobia'', a historical term for
rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims panic when offered liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abn ...
and one of its main symptoms.
*
Asexual – from Greek
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
'without' and the Latin '
sex'
*
Automobile
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
– a wheeled passenger vehicle, from Greek () 'self' and Latin 'moveable'
*
Beatnik – a 1950s
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
movement centered on jazz music, coffeehouses, marijuana, and
a literary movement, from English 'beat' and Russian 'one who does'. The term was coined in 1958 by San Francisco newspaper columnist
Herb Caen.
*
Biathlon
The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...
– from the Latin 'twice' and the Greek () 'contest'; the non-hybrid word is ''diathlon''
*
Bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...
– from Latin 'twice' and Greek () 'wheel'
*
Bigamy
In a culture where only monogamous relationships are legally recognized, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their mar ...
– from Latin 'twice' and Greek () 'wedlock'; this term dates back to the 13th century.
*
Bigram – from Latin 'twice' and Greek (); the non-hybrid word is ''digram''
*
Bioluminescence – from the Greek () 'life' and the Latin 'light'
*
Campanology – from Latin 'bell' and Greek () 'the study of'
*
Chiral – from Greek () 'hand' and Latin adjectival suffix . The term was coined in 1894.
*
Chloroform
Chloroform, or trichloromethane (often abbreviated as TCM), is an organochloride with the formula and a common solvent. It is a volatile, colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid produced on a large scale as a precursor to refrigerants and po ...
– from Greek () 'pale green' (indicating
chlorine
Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between ...
here) and Latin 'ant' (indicating
formic acid
Formic acid (), systematically named methanoic acid, is the simplest carboxylic acid. It has the chemical formula HCOOH and structure . This acid is an important intermediate in chemical synthesis and occurs naturally, most notably in some an ...
here). The term first appeared in 1830s.
*
Claustrophobia – from the Latin 'confined space' and Greek () 'fear'. This term was coined in 1879.
*
Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.
Individual coin ownership record ...
– from the Greek () 'hidden' and the Latin 'traversing'
*
Democide
Democide refers to "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command." The term, first coined by Holocaust historian and stat ...
– from the Greek () 'people' and the Latin '-killer'
*
Divalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an atom is a measure of its combining capacity with other atoms when it forms chemical compounds or molecules. Valence is generally understood to be the number of chemica ...
– from Greek () 'two' and Latin 'strong'; the non-hybrid word is ''bivalent''
*
Dysfunction – from the Greek () 'bad' and the Latin
*
Eigenvalue
In linear algebra, an eigenvector ( ) or characteristic vector is a vector that has its direction unchanged (or reversed) by a given linear transformation. More precisely, an eigenvector \mathbf v of a linear transformation T is scaled by a ...
– and English of French origin 'value'.
*
Electrocution
Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death.
The term "electrocution" was coined ...
– a
portmanteau
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. of ''electricity'', from the Greek (), 'amber', and ''execution'', from the Latin , 'follow out'
*
Eusociality
Eusociality ( Greek 'good' and social) is the highest level of organization of sociality. It is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generations wit ...
– from the Greek () 'good' and the Latin
*
Genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
– From the Greek () 'race, people' and the Latin 'to kill'
*
Geostationary – From Greek () 'Earth' and the Latin , from , from 'to stand'
*
Heteronormative – from Greek () 'different' or 'other' and Latin (via French ) 'norm'
*
Heterosexual – from Greek () 'different' or 'other' and Latin '
sex'
*
Hexadecimal
Hexadecimal (also known as base-16 or simply hex) is a Numeral system#Positional systems in detail, positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbo ...
– from Greek (), 'six', and Latin 'tenth'; the non-hybrid word is ''sedecimal'', from Latin
*
Hexavalent – from Greek (), 'six', and Latin , 'strong'
*
Homosexual – from the Greek () 'same' and the Latin '
sex' (This example is remarked on in
Tom Stoppard's ''
The Invention of Love'', with
A. E. Housman's character saying "Homosexuals? Who is responsible for this barbarity?... It's half Greek and half Latin!".)
*
Hyperactive – from Greek () 'over' and Latin
*
Hypercomplex – from Greek () 'over' and Latin 'an embrace'
*
Hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...
– from Greek () 'over' and Latin
*
Hyperextension – from Greek () 'over' and Latin 'stretching out'; the non-hybrid word is ''superextension''
*
Hypervisor – from the Greek () 'over' and the Latin 'seer'. This word is distinguished from the non-hybrid word ''
supervisor
A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss, overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position and role that is primarily based on authority over la ...
'', which is software that manages multiple user programs; a hypervisor is software that manages multiple
virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...
s
*
Liposuction – from the Greek () 'fat' and the Latin 'sucking'
*
Macroinstruction – from the Greek () 'long' and the Latin
*
Mattergy – from the Latin ('material') and the Greek () 'energy': a "word for interchangeable matter and energy"
"Mattergy and Spime", ''Jack D Capehart's blog: REASONable Ramblings'', 7 August 2009.
/ref> Adjectival form: "matergetic".
* Mega-annum – from the Greek () 'large', and the Latin 'year'
* Meritocracy – From the Latin 'deserved' and the Greek () 'government'
* Metadata
Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive ...
– from the Greek () and the Latin 'given' from
* Microinstruction – from the Greek () 'small' and the Latin
* Microcomputer – from the Greek () 'small' and the English ''computer'', from Latin
* Microvitum – from the Greek () 'small' and the pseudo-Latin , from 'life'
* Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
– from the Dakota 'water' and the Greek () 'city'
* Monoculture
In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultur ...
– from the Greek () 'one, single' and the Latin
* Monolingual – from the Greek () 'only' and the Latin 'tongue'; the non-hybrid word is '' unilingual''
* Multiethnic – from the Latin 'many' and the Greek () 'group of people'; the non-hybrid word is ''polyethnic''
* Multigraph – from the Latin 'many' and the Greek (); the non-hybrid word would be '' polygraph'', but that is generally used with a different meaning
* Neonate
In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to Juvenile (orga ...
– from the Greek (), 'new', and the Latin 'birth'
* Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...
– from the Greek () 'sinew', and the Latin , from 'having knowledge'
* Neurotransmitter
A neurotransmitter is a signaling molecule secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a Chemical synapse, synapse. The cell receiving the signal, or target cell, may be another neuron, but could also be a gland or muscle cell.
Neurotra ...
– from the Greek () 'sinew', and the Latin 'across' and 'to send'
* Nonagon – from the Latin 'ninth' and the Greek () 'angle'; the non-hybrid word is '' enneagon''
* Oleomargarine – from the Latin 'beef fat' and the Greek 'pearl-like'
* Pandeism – from the Greek () 'all' and Latin 'god
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
'; compare with the non-hybrid word '' pantheism''
* Periglacial – from the Greek () and the Latin
*Petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
– from the Greek () 'rock', and the Latin 'oil'
* Polyamory – from the Greek () 'many' and the Latin ' love'
* Polydeism – from the Greek () 'many' and the Latin 'god
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
'; compare with the non-hybrid word '' polytheism''
* Postsynaptic – from the Latin and English ''synapse'', derived from Greek
* Psychosocial – from the Greek and Latin
* – from the Latin meaning four and the Greek (), from () meaning sound; the non-hybrid word is ''tetraphonic''
* Quadriplegia – from the Latin 'four' and the Greek () 'stroke', from () 'to strike'; the non-hybrid word is '' tetraplegia''
* Sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
– from the Latin , 'comrade', and the Greek () 'word', 'reason', 'discourse'
* Sociopath – from the Latin from 'to associate with', and the Greek () 'sufferer' from (), 'incident, suffering, experience'
* Television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
– from the Greek () 'far' and the Latin 'seeing', from 'to see'
* Tonsillectomy – from the Latin 'tonsils' and the Greek (), 'to cut out'
* Vexillology
Vexillology ( ) is the study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags or, by extension, any interest in flags in general.Smith, Whitney. ''Flags Through the Ages and Across the World'' New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975. Print.
A person who studi ...
– from the Latin word , 'flag', and the Greek suffix (), 'study'
Other languages
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...
abounds with non- Semitic derivational affixes, which are applied to words of both Semitic and non-Semitic descent. The following hybrid words consist of a Hebrew-descent word and a non-Semitic descent suffix:[Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009)]
Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns
In ''Journal of Language Contact'', Varia 2: 40–67, p. 49.
*bitkhon-íst () 'one who evaluates everything from the perspective of national security', from ''bitakhón'' 'security' + the productive internationalism ''-ist''
*khamúda-le () 'cutie (feminine singular)', from ''khamuda'' 'cute (feminine singular) + ''-le'', endearment diminutive of Yiddish origin
*kiso-lógya () 'the art of finding a political seat (especially in the Israeli Parliament)', from ''kisé'' 'seat' + the productive internationalism ''-lógya'' '-logy'
*maarav-izátsya () 'westernization', from ''maaráv'' 'west' + the productive internationalism ''-izátsya'' '-ization' (itself via Russian from a hybrid of Greek -ιζ- ''-iz-'' and Latin ''-atio'')
*miluím-nik () 'reservist, reserve soldier', from ''miluím'' 'reserve' (literally 'fill-ins') + ''-nik'', a most productive agent suffix of Yiddish and Russian descent
The following Modern Hebrew hybrid words have an international prefix:
*anti-hitnatkút () 'anti-disengagement'
*post-milkhamtí () 'post-war'
*pro-araví () 'pro-Arab'
Some hybrid words consist of both a non-Hebrew word and a non-Hebrew suffix of different origins:
*shababnik () 'rebel youth of Haredi Judaism
Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...
', from Arabic ''shabab'' (youth) and ''-nik'' of Yiddish and Russian descent
Some hybrid words consist of a non-Hebrew word and a Hebrew suffix:
*Individuali-ut () 'Individualism', from English ''Individual'' and ''ut'', a productive Hebrew suffix meaning ''-ism''
Modern Hebrew also has a productive derogatory prefixal shm-, which results in an 'echoic expressive'. For example, um shmum (), literally 'United Nations shm-United Nations', was a pejorative description by Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...
, of 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 ...
, called in Modern Hebrew ''umot meukhadot'' () and abbreviated um (). Thus, when a Hebrew speaker would like to express their impatience with or disdain for philosophy, they can say ''filosófya-shmilosófya'' (). Modern Hebrew shm- is traceable back to Yiddish
Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
, and is found in English as well as shm-reduplication. This is comparable to the Turkic initial m-segment conveying a sense of 'and so on' as in Turkish ''dergi mergi okumuyor'', literally 'magazine "shmagazine" read:NEGATIVE:PRESENT:3rd.person.singular', i.e. '(He) doesn't read magazine, journals or anything like that'.
Filipino
In Filipino, hybrid words are called siyokoy (literally "merman"). For example, the word ''concernado'' ("concerned") has "concern-" come from English and "-ado" come from Spanish.
Japanese
In Japanese, hybrid words are common in kango (words formed from 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 ...
characters) in which some of the characters may be pronounced using Chinese pronunciations (''on'yomi,'' from Chinese morphemes), and others in the same word are pronounced using Japanese pronunciations (''kun'yomi,'' from Japanese morphemes). These words are known as ''jūbako'' (重箱) or ''yutō'' (湯桶), which are themselves examples of this kind of compound (they are autological words): the first character of ''jūbako'' is read using ''on'yomi'', the second ''kun'yomi'', while it is the other way around with ''yutō''. Other examples include 場所 ''basho'' "place" (''kun-on''), 金色 ''kin'iro'' "golden" (''on-kun'') and 合気道 ''aikidō'' "the martial art Aikido
Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...
" (''kun-on-on''). Some hybrid words are neither ''jūbako'' nor ''yutō'' (縦中横 ''tatechūyoko'' (''kun-on-kun'')). Foreign words may also be hybridized with Chinese or Japanese readings in slang words such as 高層ビル ''kōsōbiru'' "high-rise building" (''on-on-katakana'') and 飯テロ ''meshitero'' "food terrorism" (''kun-katakana'').
See also
* Classical compound
Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from Classical_language#Classical_studies, classical languages (classical Latin or ancient Greek) root (linguistics), roots. Neo-Lati ...
* International scientific vocabulary
International scientific vocabulary (ISV) comprises scientific and specialized words whose language of origin may or may not be certain, but which are in current use in several modern languages (that is, translingually, whether in naturalized, lo ...
* List of Greek and Latin roots in English
The English language uses many Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages:
* Greek and Latin roots from A to G
* Greek and Latin roots from H to O
* Greek and Latin roots from P to Z.
Some ...
* Phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with phonetically and semantically similar words or roots f ...
* In Sino-Japanese vocabulary
Sino-Japanese vocabulary, also known as , is a subset of Japanese vocabulary that originated in Chinese language, Chinese or was created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Most Sino-Japanese words were borrowed in the 5th–9th centuries AD, from ...
, hybrid words are called jūbako (重箱) or yutō (湯桶); see: Kanji § Other readings
Notes
{{Authority control
English language
Etymology
Linguistic morphology
Word coinage
Macaronic language
de:Hybridbildung#Hybridbildung in der Wortbildung