Questions tagged [word-formation]
This tag is for questions about the formation of the words in English language.
110
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Is the word structure of 'politico-chicanery' acceptable?
Consider the word combination in the following sentence - “Filmography recapitulating politico-chicanery, the age of the superhero is about to yield to the age of the monster”.
I’ve always thought the ...
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3
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132
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What is the adjectival form of "paragon"?
If a person or thing is the exemplar of a particular virtue, you might say that they or it is exemplary or ideal; but the word "paragon" has a particular, even mythical connotation that none ...
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How to know if the beginning of a word is a true prefix
In English, I think it is fairly obvious when some words have a prefix. For example,
recall, return, remove, superconductor, etc.
You can actually separate the prefix from the root word and have a ...
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Is the word "sightseeing" tautological?
Is this word sometimes perceived as "silly" by a native speaker? By "silly" I mean something in itself a bit absurd, because repetitive, naively constructed, given that this word ...
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Why "coercion" and not "coertion" or "coersion"?
Usually, nouns coming from verbs end in the suffixes -tion or -sion.
After -n and -r, the ending can be -tion or -sion. It's more likely to be -tion if the word's related to another one that ends in -...
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What is the animal adjective relating to tegu lizards (salvatorine, tupinambine etc.)?
If I were to go on a "corvine extermination expedition," we would understand an intent to exterminate crows, of genus corvus. The invasive tegu lizards in Florida are subject to such ...
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Is the verb usage of "ladle" considered verbing?
She ladled water instead of soup...
In this sentence, is "ladled" considered verbing or was it a regular and real verb before?
I know informal English allows things like: "I'll ...
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Why "monatomic" and not "monoatomic"?
"Mono" means singular, and "atomic" stands for the atom. So combining them will give a single atom - "monatomic".
But why is this so? Why can't it be "monoatomic&...
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What is it called when a word is abbreviated from the middle? (Ex: fridge from reFRIGErator)
Fridge, the middle part of the word refrigerator (ok, with an extra letter...), is often used as an abbreviation (mainly in British English).
Is there a name for such words where we use an abbreviated ...
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Why do some words sound/feel more fake than others? Is there logic/psychology behind this phenomenon? [closed]
I was recently reading Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem and had the thought that some of the made-up words sounded more real than some real words.
And looking at a list of words that are real but are ...
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Is there a valid form of "aggregate" meaning "that can be aggregated"? Is "Aggregable" a word? [closed]
A thing that can be composted is compostable. I'm trying to describe a thing that can be aggregated. The probably self-invented word I'm using is "aggregable" and I'm struggling to find it ...
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What is the name for the transformation of "good on you" to "onya"?
In Australian slang, there is a word "Onya" which is used in the exact same way as "Good on you".
What transformations have taken place in the formation of this slang? I'm finding ...
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Which of the two sounds more natural: corestrict or correstrict?
In mathematics, one uses the prefix co- to denote something that's dual to an already known object, for instance: limit -> colimit, basis -> cobasis, cycle -> cocycle, tangent -> cotagent, ...
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Is combustant a word?
I am trying to pin down the definition of the word combustant, but I can't seem to find anything. Almost all dictionaries are giving me the definition for combustion. If I search with a strict filter, ...
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Why does “lineage” retain the "e" when the suffix "-age" is added?
"Lineage" (/ˈlɪn·i·ɪdʒ/) is equivalent to "line" + "-age". Other such nouns lose the "e" when this suffix is added:
Stem
+ Suffix
= Noun
Anecdote
+ Age
= ...
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Sentence structure and form
Is this sentence grammatically correct?
"The great sea creature came alongside Lotty and nudged him, so he climbed on board its strong back.
I don't get what sentence structure the second part ...
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Word for an all seeing society/government type
I'm looking for a word to mean a society or government type where everything is visible or known to everyone, similar to omniscient. For example, if everyone (including government) can see everything ...
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Which is the correct use of 'people' vs 'peoples'? [closed]
Which grammar is correct to ask?
Which people was Utah named for?
Or is it this...
Which peoples was Utah named for?
The answer being "Utes", is it correct to use "people" or &...
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"move unassisted"
As far as I know, "move" is a Verb, "unassisted" is an adjective, and a verb is modified by an adverb. So could you please help me to explain this following sentence, which is from the Oxford ...
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Never in my life have I been more curious to learn something than this course. Is this sentence correct?
I was wondering if the following sentence was grammatically correct or not.
Never in my life have I been more curious to learn something than this course.
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Why word "weighten" aren't actually a valid word?
There's bunch of words with -en form of word like height-heighten, bright-brighten and others, but weight-weighten aren't valid pair. Is there any reasons, why is it like that? Is there any rule for ...
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To request "signed photographs" vs "signing photographs"
I was doing a Cambridge English Advanced, Use of English, Part 3 task today, when I came across the following sentence:
Though fans continued to hound her with requests for SIGN photographs
seven ...
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Why is navigable correct?
I corrected someone using "navigatable" when they meant "navigable". They wanted to know why it is the latter. Does anyone know? Is there a reason?
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What does the formation of putting words an idea or feeling given here mean?
Here's the conversation I was having with a guy:
So, in this context, f I drill down, from my perspective, they may not mean anything together.
Can you please help me figure out what his expression ...
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1
answer
129
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In the sentence who is saying "that's your business,isn't it ,cousin"
Laila remembered another fight, and, that time, Mammy had stood over Babi and said in a mincing
way,That's your business, isn't it, cousin? To make nothing your business. Even your own sons going
to ...
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0
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Why is it Orthodontics but Pedodontia?
Similarly we also have words like Periodontia and Exodontia and Endodontia (and Endodontics too apparently) and for many of them, I just can not find which one is correct?
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2
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Why is it Endodontic (-ic suffix) but Dental (-al suffix)?
Especially when they both derive from Endodontist and Dentist respectively, so context doesn't vary much.
I found many answers on the web explaining that -ic and -ical suffixes don't follow any rule ...
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470
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dogfight vs. dog fighting
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a dogfight means:
1 : a fight between dogs
broadly : a fiercely disputed contest
2 : a fight between two or more fighter planes usually at close quarters
...
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What's the correct word to refer to a believer of scientism? [duplicate]
Scientism is, roughly speaking, the belief that the only legitimate knowledge is scientific knowledge and all other sources of knowledge - like religion - should be rejected.
If it is still unlcear, ...
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What is the function of 'a-' in the phrase 'cocks a-crow' [duplicate]
This is a beginning of W.B.Yeats's poem Under Ben Bulben:
Swear by what the Sages spoke
Round the Mareotic Lake
That the Witch of Atlas knew,
Spoke and set the cocks a-crow.
What is the ...
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3
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What are the higher variations of 'couple'? [closed]
If a couple is a pair or a group of two, what does one call a group of three, four, etc.?
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Word Formation: Noun Suffixes and their Spelling and Stress Shift Rules
I've been having a real hard time trying to gather information about word formation in English, more specifically about the rules involving suffixes that turn verbs and adjectives into nouns. But not ...
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Open-ended concepts in Chinese usually be alluded by listing specific examples. Would native English speakers find it hard to grasp the connotation?
In Chinese and Vietnamese sometimes a word is made up by listing its examples. For example, "table-chair" means furniture, "month-year" means time, "land-water" means country, "spring-summer-fall-...
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Words that can be decomposed entirely into parts which are anagrams of each other [closed]
I recently noticed that teammate is composed of two anagrams, and was wondering if anyone had any other examples of this, or even better, a name for this phenomenon?
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How is "burial" incorrectly formed?
OED says that:
Middle English buryel, biriel, incorrectly formed as a singular of byriels, buriels n., q.v.; in later times associated with nouns in -al from French, such as espousal-s.
Etymonline....
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Email - We will discuss about this during/in our meeting scheduled on Monday? [closed]
I am responding to an email where i want inform the person who asked some question saying we will discuss about this during Mondays meeting. I am not sure which is the correct way of framing this ...
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Word form of "lie" in this sentence? [closed]
I have this sentence
The _____ strength of this novel is the author's life experience
And it needs a word form of lie to fill in the gap. At first, I think it's lying but it sounds weird to me.
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Which word is correct in this sentence? (signing/signature)
Consider the following:
The financial industry got its (22) ________ (office) start on Wall Street on May 17, 1792. On that day, New York's first stock exchange was established by the (23) ________ ...
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Do you usually divide words into elements?
English sounds sound complex for me as a non-native speaker, because of vowel reduction.
English vowels in words can take a wide range of form in natural speech due to vowel reduction and whether you ...
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Why does English have so few "obscene" roots, compared to Russian? [closed]
Russian has 4 obscene roots ('-еб-', '-хуй-', '-пизд-', '-бляд-') and a huge variety of options in order to create new words:
'ебать', 'ёбаный', 'уебать', 'заебать', 'подъебать', 'ебантяй', 'уёбок'...
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One word for an ability that is self-destructive
I am looking for one word to describe an ability that does more harm than good to the one having the ability.
For example, an artist who has so much to express that it drives him mad. Or a scientist ...
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Why 'nervOUS', but 'mentAL'? [closed]
Why not to use one suffix for both stems? Like 'nervAL'/'mentAL' or 'nervOUS'/'mentOUS'. Thanks for your answer
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Are there rules for forming adjectives from names? [duplicate]
I may not be using the right terms for what I'm asking, but for example, "Cartesian" is an adjective derived from Descartes' name, and "Dickensian" is an adjective derived from Charles Dickens' name, ...
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Is "Five dollars is all I have" correct?
I want to emphasize that I only have 5 dollars, so can I use the sentence:
Five dollars is all I have.
Or must it be:
Five dollars are all I have.
Please give the explanation as well.
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Can I split the word "being" with a "-" (hyphen)?
In the following sentence I want to use the word "being". I was told that my use of the word "being" is confusing or unclear. Can I write "being" as "be-ing"? Is that even an acceptable way to write ...
3
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What English words have unique prevocalic forms?
The indefinite article a becomes an when it precedes a word beginning with a vowel sound. Similar conventions can be found in thy → thine and the now-archaic my → mine.
Aside from these three ...
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"Lip-sync" or "Lip-synch"?
What is the correct spelling of the expression "lip sync[h]," which refers to miming singing over a recording--usually in a public performance and with the intention to mislead?
Google has ...
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Question that is a no-brainer
I need a phrase which has a meaning of a question that is very easy to answer and requires very little thought. I think it might have something to do with word no-brainer.
I don't know if a no-...
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Etymology of Butterfly
Does the word butterfly derive from transposition of word order, i.e., "flutter by"? Several dictionaries that I looked this up in so long ago that I've forgotten which ones, said either "origin ...
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What do you call people who live 6 months in city(urban area ), then travel to the village(rural area) and live 6 months. And they do this constantly
I have found the words 'commuter' and 'Itinerant' but they don't really describe what I mean. I made up the word 'biland','bilanded' means people who have two land to live on. What do you say? Is it ...