This week’s theme
Self-referential words

This week’s words
monosemous
double-barreled
exolete
pentasyllabic
back-form


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1117

Next week’s theme
Back-formations

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(BAK-form)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To make a word by dropping an apparent affix from a longer word.

ETYMOLOGY:

Back-formation from back-formation.Earliest documented use: 1911.

NOTES:

The word make has been with us from at least 1150. We later added the suffix -er to make maker (from 1297). Had maker come first, and we made make from it by removing a part, that would be a back-formation.

To back-form is to coin a new word (usually a verb) by removing an actual or supposed affix from another word (usually a noun). Examples:

the verb burgle, formed from the noun burglar
the verb emote, formed from the noun emotion
the verb vacuum clean, formed from the noun vacuum cleaner

The word back-form itself is back-formed from back-formation.

USAGE:

“The verb edit was back-formed from editor.”
R.M.W. Dixon; Making New Words; Oxford University Press; 2014.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: