1

For example:

Alcoholic -- Alcohol means... well, alcohol. The suffix "-ic" means "of or pertaining to"

Chocoholic -- Choco: a shortened form of "chocolate". The suffix "-holic" seemingly means "addicted to", though the suffix "-ic" is all that is required to denote this according to the previous example.

Is there an etymological term for this "suffix merging" that occurs? (bonus points for finding more examples of this)

Edit for Clarity


Here's an article from grammarist describing this in more detail. "Alcoholic" was coined as a combination of "alcohol" and "-ic". Then, in the 20th century, the suffix "-holic" took on the meaning of "addicted to". E.g., "shopaholic", "workaholic", "golfaholic", etc.

Is there a word for when suffixes merge into words they are modifying in this manner?

Edit #2

Another example: helicopter comes from the greek “helix” or spiral, and “pter” or “flying” yet “-copter” is the suffix used for spinning blade flying things like “quadcopter”. Of course “quadpter” doesn’t really make sense in English, but I’m interested in a term to describe the combination of “helix” and “pter” becoming a new suffix

10
  • What do you mean by “etymological term”?
    – user 66974
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 6:05
  • 1
    What do you mean by "suffix merging"? The noun alcoholic has a different meaning from the adjective alcoholic, so your meaning of -ic is suspect here. [I suspect the actual answer is something like production, from productive — see Lexico 1.4 — but production seems to be rather awkward.]
    – Andrew Leach
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 7:44
  • The word ic is a word that's used as a suffix; it's purpose is to use it grammatically. There is no such thing as its being "overly co-opted into new words." That's how it's supposed to be used. Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 19:48
  • 1
    this answer at that site uses the term "prosody analogy"
    – Barmar
    Commented Apr 16, 2020 at 1:50
  • 3
    It's probably also related to the use of the -gate suffix to refer to any scandal, by extension from Watergate.
    – Barmar
    Commented Apr 16, 2020 at 1:52

1 Answer 1

2
+50

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_word

Common hybrids The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since many prefixes and suffixes in English are of Latin or Greek etymology, 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.

Chocoholic – a portmanteau of "chocolate" (from the Nahuatl xocolātl/chocolātl) and "alcoholic", which itself was formed from the Arabic اَلْكُحُول (al-kuḥūl) "alcohol" and the French adjectival suffix -ic

Mattergy – from the Latin materia ("material") and the Greek ἐνέργεια (energeia, "energy"): a "word for interchangeable matter and energy"13 Adjectival form: "matergetic".


The Free Dictionary

sophomoric - Includes the roots soph-, "wise," and moros, "fool"—so the contrast between wisdom and ignorance is built right into the word.


Cambridge History of English Language Vol 4

The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume 4 edited by Richard M. Hogg, Norman Francis Blake, Suzanne Romaine, Roger Lass, R. W. Burchfield

Affixing and Blending (partial snatches) p. 76

Understanding Language Change

EDIT:

Understanding Language Change By Kate Burridge, Alexander Bergs - no page #, but identified by "2.1.12"

About helicopter origin

2
  • This may also be interesting to OP: linguistlist.org/ask-ling/…
    – tblue
    Commented Apr 28, 2020 at 7:11
  • These particular words may be hybrid words, but that is incidental to what the OP is concerned with: a part of a word becoming a suffix.
    – jsw29
    Commented Apr 28, 2020 at 17:35

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .