ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY

5.8 Backformation

 

Backformation is coining a new word from an older word which is mistakenly taken as its derivative. It is “a process that creates a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from another word in a language” (O’Grady, Archibald, Aronoff, & Rees-Miller, 1993, p.127). For example, resurrect was formed from resurrection. Other backformations include accrete from accretion, adolesce from adolescence, attrit from attrition, babysit from babysitter, beg from beggar, bulldoze from bulldozer, choate from inchoate, commentate from commentator, enthuse from enthusiasm, evaluate from evaluation, haze from hazy, and others. Words ending in –or, ar, or -er are susceptible to backformation. Because such words as teacher, singer, and others are the result of suffixation, other words such as editor, burglar, peddler, respirator, and swindler are believed to be built the same way, resulting in creation of the verbs edit, burgle, peddle, respirate, and swindle. Many verbs are formed from abstract nouns ending in –ion: absciss from abscission, accrete from accretion, and ablute from ablution. The oldest backformation in American English is locate (from location), which came into being in the seventeenth century. After the Civil war, out of the word commutation a new word, commute, was coined to indicate a regular railroad travel to and from the city. Several other words such as housekeep, burgle, enthuse, donate, injunct, and jell were created. The British English also used backformation by changing an –ation noun to –ate verb: create from creation, deviate from deviation, delineate from delineation, placate from placation, and ruminate from rumination. Backformation continues to produce new words. Some are formed because of a real need, but some of them are just playful formations. These words are fully adopted into the language, and few persons who use them know their origin.