A.Word.A.Day --neophilia

A.Word.A.Day

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Apr 15, 2024

This week’s theme
Words made with combining forms

This week’s words
neophilia
pyrophobia
arithmomania
zoolatry
cryptogenic

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

Previous week’s theme
Words from chem lab

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

There are many ways to add new words to a language:

borrow from another language
e.g., from Japanese, Persian, Sanskrit, Yiddish, and more
turn a person’s name into a word
e.g. people from fiction, mythology, or real life
turn a place name into a word
e.g. words coined after places in India, places in London, places in fiction

And so on.

One way to add new words is by using building blocks called combining forms and putting them together to create fresh terms. For example, biology is from bio- (life) + -logy (study).

What are combining forms? Think of them as Lego bricks of language. This week we’ll see five words made by the following combining forms, but not necessarily in that order:
neo-, pyro-, arithmo-, zoo-, and crypto-
-mania, -philia, -latry, -phobia, and -genic

What words can you make by mixing and matching the above combining forms? We’ll feature five words, but there are 20 other possibilities if you use only two combining forms in a word. You are allowed to use more than two to coin a word. Share your coinages and their definitions below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Include your location (city, state).

neophilia

PRONUNCIATION:

(nee-uh-FIL-ee-uh)

MEANING:

noun: The love of what’s new or novel.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek neo- (new) + -philia (love). Earliest documented use: 1899. The opposite is neophobia.

USAGE:

“Neophilia is at the root of the growing problem of hazardous waste in the US and other developed countries. More than 100 million mobile phones were discarded in the US last year, along with tens of millions of computers.”
Neophiliac; New Scientist (London, UK); Jun 10, 2006.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. -Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (15 Apr 1452-1519)

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