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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: Best Back-formations
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Adam.
Like as the
# 4991
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Posted
A word is said to be back-formed if it was coined by someone assuming another word had been formed from it. For instance, burgle is a back-formation from the (much older) burglar -- the word burglar was around for a while, then someone (wrongly) assumed it was the agent noun of a verb burgle and started using the verb, which is now a staple of British and some varieties of American English. (Q: Do others use it?)
Anyone heard any good back-formed words recently?
This summer, I'm spending a lot of time with people who speak English as a second language, so I'm hearing a few goodies. A great one I heard today was eucharisty -- in eucharistic adoration, one exposes the eucharisty, right?
[ 02. July 2010, 18:32: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
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Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog
Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I decided some time ago that anyone who didn't own an i-Pod was inpodulate.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
I remember one of my university tutors encouraging us prior to exams, if not to revise, at least to vise.
(I'm sure I'll think of more in due course).
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
I work with Indians who use words that have evolved and demonstrate how illogical or restricted the English language can be when we limit ourselves to the current dictionaries - they take a word to the next sensible step when compared to other words and I love seeing the language evolve. For example "updation" - and why not? If delete becomes deletion why can't update become updation?
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
When our baby would wake up and become active, my husband and I used to say that she was 'ert'.
ETA: There are many other such words, like 'kempt', 'gruntled', 'ept'.
Moo
[ 17. July 2008, 11:38: Message edited by: Moo ]
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Zealot en vacance
Shipmate
# 9795
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Posted
The natives aren't backward at this either. The UK's blood donor service has ventured both 'doning' and 'doned' in some of its' material in the past few years. Sooner or later they are bound to reach 'donee'...
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He said, "Love one another".
Posts: 2014 | From: Surface of planet Earth | Registered: Jul 2005
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
What is the function of a usher? Why, to ush, of course.
Not exactly a back formation, but I refuse to accept "text" as a verb. If a person can't be bothered to say "send a text message" then there's no hope for him.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
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Hugal
Shipmate
# 2734
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Posted
One I use is Themeing. As in to Theme (the themeing on that ride was excellent). I noticed it wasn't in Oxford on line but I use it.
As this is title Best Back formations I wondered if it was about modeling with bacon.
[ 17. July 2008, 14:57: Message edited by: Hugal ]
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I have never done this trick in these trousers before.
Posts: 1887 | From: london | Registered: Apr 2002
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zealot en vacance:
The natives aren't backward at this either. The UK's blood donor service has ventured both 'doning' and 'doned' in some of its' material in the past few years. Sooner or later they are bound to reach 'donee'...
Others have got there first.
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
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Posted
Not a proper example but I do remember once years ago hearing in a sermon 'What is the point of deacons if they don't deac?'
(it may have been Tony Campolo at Spring Harvest ... but on the other hand it may have been someone else, although I do hear it in my mind with an American accent!)
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Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
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Adam.
Like as the
# 4991
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Posted
I just thought of another one. I have a friend whose dad has a very close male friend who's been something of a mentor to her. He's not her uncle, so what is he? Her cle (pron. "cull"), of course!
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Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gracious rebel:
Not a proper example but I do remember once years ago hearing in a sermon 'What is the point of deacons if they don't deac?'
Which reminds me of the Rector's wife who was having a bad hair day, harassed by many callers at the Rectory door. The last of whom, confused between Rectory and Vicarage, asked 'is this the Wreckage?' to which the good lady replied, 'Yes, and I'm the wreck.'
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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Hugal
Shipmate
# 2734
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Posted
(May be slightly off topic) What about mate as in a lad's friend or a builder's mate. I am sure they are not planning to have kids together. I often wondered how the 'lad's best friend' meaning came about.
[ 18. July 2008, 08:14: Message edited by: Hugal ]
Posts: 1887 | From: london | Registered: Apr 2002
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
What is the function of a usher? Why, to ush, of course.
Not exactly a back formation, but I refuse to accept "text" as a verb. If a person can't be bothered to say "send a text message" then there's no hope for him.
In normal English that right. In txtspk I think it should be sndtxt.
Don't start "verbing" which is a back-formation in itself.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Esmeralda
Ship's token UK Mennonite
# 582
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
When our baby would wake up and become active, my husband and I used to say that she was 'ert'.
ETA: There are many other such words, like 'kempt', 'gruntled', 'ept'.
Moo
'Couth' for instance. Or possibly 'combobulated'.
But the really confusing pair is 'flammable' and 'inflammable' which are not actually opposites but synonyms. Someone messed up there...
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I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.
http://reversedstandard.wordpress.com/
Posts: 17415 | From: A small island nobody pays any attention to | Registered: Jun 2001
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Gladly The Cross-eyed Bear
Fixed Bearly Tone
# 9641
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gracious rebel:
Not a proper example but I do remember once years ago hearing in a sermon 'What is the point of deacons if they don't deac?'
(it may have been Tony Campolo at Spring Harvest ... but on the other hand it may have been someone else, although I do hear it in my mind with an American accent!)
Yes, indeed. All our deacons deac, and the term is used in our Cabinet meetings.
Children often come up with back-formations. My son was three years old and I was teaching him how to clean the room. I told him to put his dirty clothes in the hamper. "Hamper?" he asked, "Does that mean it hamps things?" I was that proud of him. ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
Gladly
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Percy, Mace, and Grease be with you!
Posts: 162 | From: East end of the Desolation of Smog | Registered: Jun 2005
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
Out driving this morning, I ended up behind a car whose vanity plate read "PAMNED". It first struck me as the past tense of the verb to pamn, and I spent several seconds trying to figure out what being "pamned" means. Is it like "pwned?" Maybe its opposite? Anyway, I'm sure Pamela and Edward would have found me slow on the uptake.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Hugal
Shipmate
# 2734
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Posted
Looking Mate up on Oxford on line it seems to derive from the navel usage, as in lower rank on a ship.
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I have never done this trick in these trousers before.
Posts: 1887 | From: london | Registered: Apr 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
When our baby would wake up and become active, my husband and I used to say that she was 'ert'.
ETA: There are many other such words, like 'kempt', 'gruntled', 'ept'.
I just looked up "disgruntled", on the grounds that "gruntle" sounds more like what you expect of a pig. Actually, it is. It's a word that's been around since the 1400s and means "a little grunt". And in that sense, means mildly put out as opposed to a full grunt when you're completely cheesed off.
I can't now work out from this whether "disgruntled" really means that you're not gruntling at all, and are quite happy. Or whether (like "flammable" and "inflammable") it means the same as "gruntled".
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Hugal:
As this is title Best Back formations I wondered if it was about modeling with bacon.
Well, I did manage to get pigs into my last post... we'll get there yet.
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Esmeralda:
But the really confusing pair is 'flammable' and 'inflammable' which are not actually opposites but synonyms. Someone messed up there...
Famous quote from Woody on the TV show Cheers, when talking about two words that mean the same thing: "...like flammable and inflammable. Boy, I sure learned that the hard way...."
My husband says this every time someone uses either of those words.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
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East Price Road
Shipmate
# 13846
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
When our baby would wake up and become active, my husband and I used to say that she was 'ert'.
ETA: There are many other such words, like 'kempt', 'gruntled', 'ept'.
Moo
This reminds me, and no doubt others, of the famous New Yorker article: "How I Met My Wife", which can be found many places on the internet, including here.
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"Fishes stop and ask me where I'm bound." (Incredible String Band)
Posts: 739 | From: West Yorkshire | Registered: Jun 2008
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cattyish
Wuss in Boots
# 7829
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Posted
Awww.... ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) How sweet! "I have given her my love, and she has quited it." Romance it seems is ad.
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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Pearl B4 Swine
Ship's Oyster-Shucker
# 11451
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Posted
Two that really give me a pain reaction are
- signage: First I heard that was when corporate HQ sent a memo to all the branch offices saying that 'new signage' would be arriving via truck- to replace the old sign that hung over the store front for many years. When I complained about 'signage' I was told it was perfectly good business language.
- dialogueing/ dialoging: I ran afoul of this one at son1's elementary school, where they started having "dialog groups'. Again, I complained, and was told all the best educators were using this word now.
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Oinkster
"I do a good job and I know how to do this stuff" D. Trump (speaking of the POTUS job)
Posts: 3622 | From: The Keystone State | Registered: May 2006
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musicalpenguin
Apprentice
# 12275
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Posted
"dialogueing"? Really? Ugh. My flabber is well and truly gasted.
Posts: 18 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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East Price Road
Shipmate
# 13846
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Posted
I'm not pained, but just bewildered at the recent new use of "build" instead of building, as in edifice, especially "new build". To me a "build" still describes a person's body size - slight, medium, or heavy!
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"Fishes stop and ask me where I'm bound." (Incredible String Band)
Posts: 739 | From: West Yorkshire | Registered: Jun 2008
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
ferriage horrid word, it means provision for a ferry, or the fare paid for it.
PG Wodehouse has a lovely passage quote:
“He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”
which comes from the Code of the Woosters and online from a discussion on unpaired opposites.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by East Price Road:
This reminds me, and no doubt others, of the famous New Yorker article: "How I Met My Wife", which can be found many places on the internet, including here.
quote:
So, after a terminable delay, I acted with mitigated gall and made my way through the ruly crowd with strong givings.
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
"... He has authored a book..."
And in a few months from now, someone will have editored it, typesettered it and printered it, after which it will be booksellered.
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cor ad cor loquitur
Shipmate
# 11816
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I work with Indians who use words that have evolved and demonstrate how illogical or restricted the English language can be when we limit ourselves to the current dictionaries - they take a word to the next sensible step when compared to other words and I love seeing the language evolve. For example "updation" - and why not? If delete becomes deletion why can't update become updation?
Some of these Indian constructions are lovely -- for example, to prepone a meeting, meaning to bring it forward: the opposite of postpone. Perfectly logical. I don't think that's a back formation but it's a similar construct. Or reversely: the meaning is similar to conversely but the contrast is stronger.
Both of these show up in the OED, by the way; prepone as opposed to postpone is labelled "most frequent in Indian English".
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Quam vos veritatem interpretationis, hanc eruditi κακοζηλίαν nuncupant … si ad verbum interpretor, absurde resonant. (St Jerome, Ep. 57 to Pammachius)
Posts: 1332 | From: London | Registered: Sep 2006
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mrs whibley
Shipmate
# 4798
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gladly The Cross-eyed Bear:
Children often come up with back-formations.
Indeed - I hear that my stepson once asked "Can I help you hoove, Daddy?" and the verb has stayed in the Whibley household vocabulary since.
Posts: 942 | From: North Lincolnshire | Registered: Aug 2003
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Esmeralda
Ship's token UK Mennonite
# 582
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mrs whibley:
quote:
Originally posted by Gladly The Cross-eyed Bear:
Children often come up with back-formations.
Indeed - I hear that my stepson once asked "Can I help you hoove, Daddy?" and the verb has stayed in the Whibley household vocabulary since.
I think he was misnoming.
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I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.
http://reversedstandard.wordpress.com/
Posts: 17415 | From: A small island nobody pays any attention to | Registered: Jun 2001
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
My friend's daughter can't have been the first to say when told to behave 'but I am being have!'
But she may have been the first, when told not to use blasphemy, to say 'It may be blas for you, but it isn't blas for me!'
Ah, moral relativism in one so young.
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
Lovely one today from Shipmate John Donne over in Purg, where he used the word 'fiasco' and added 'and I don't want to be there when it fiasses'.
I'm going to nick that!
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Esmeralda:
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
When our baby would wake up and become active, my husband and I used to say that she was 'ert'.
ETA: There are many other such words, like 'kempt', 'gruntled', 'ept'.
Moo
'Couth' for instance. Or possibly 'combobulated'.
...
'Couth' is perfectly good (Old) English: 'cuth' pronounced the same, meaning 'known, recognised'. So 'Cuthbert' is OE 'Cuthbeorht': 'known-bright'.
'Uncuth' would therefore originally be someone who was an outsider or socially uncacceptable.
Posts: 3322 | From: West Thriding | Registered: Jun 2001
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
When talking about an exciting adventure movie, I have been known to say "Many swashes were buckled".
Which is actually, incorrect, as the term "swash-buckle" actually refers to bucklers, small shields. So it would be more appropriate to say "many buckles were swashed". But it doesn't sound as good for some reason.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gill H:
Lovely one today from Shipmate John Donne over in Purg, where he used the word 'fiasco' and added 'and I don't want to be there when it fiasses'.
Brilliant!
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Esmeralda
Ship's token UK Mennonite
# 582
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Posted
It has occurred to me that someone with benevolent feelings towards humanity could be an anthrope. Or if it was just towards women, an ogynist.
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I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.
http://reversedstandard.wordpress.com/
Posts: 17415 | From: A small island nobody pays any attention to | Registered: Jun 2001
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
When our baby would wake up and become active, my husband and I used to say that she was 'ert'.
ETA: There are many other such words, like 'kempt', 'gruntled', 'ept'.
Moo
Kempt is real -- an early pronunciation of combed.
Ept is real -- an early pronunciation of apt.
Don't know about gruntled, though.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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Wilfried
Shipmate
# 12277
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
"... He has authored a book..."
And in a few months from now, someone will have editored it, typesettered it and printered it, after which it will be booksellered.
Right. Properly it should read, "He authed a book..."
And "edit" is in fact a back formation.
Posts: 429 | From: Lefty on the Right Coast | Registered: Jan 2007
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Esmeralda
Ship's token UK Mennonite
# 582
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Wilfried:
And "edit" is in fact a back formation.
My boss at Third Way magazine used to hit me on the head with a rolled newspaper, claiming that he was after all the 'ead 'itter.
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I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.
http://reversedstandard.wordpress.com/
Posts: 17415 | From: A small island nobody pays any attention to | Registered: Jun 2001
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Adam.
Like as the
# 4991
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Posted
I also use "mentee", as in the person who is mented by their mentor.
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Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog
Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003
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Grits
Compassionate fundamentalist
# 4169
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Posted
Does anyone remember the episode of "Friends" when Joey proclaimed himself to be a "Mento for kids"? Hilarious.
I also like the current commerical starring Frank Caliendo as George Bush where he discusses "recordification".
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Lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff, and shut it when I've said enough. Amen.
Posts: 8419 | From: Nashville, TN | Registered: Feb 2003
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I once thought up a character called a Lert™ who would give safety lectures in the workplace. I thought everyone would want to be a Lert™, but I was wrong.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Boopy
Shipmate
# 4738
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
I once thought up a character called a Lert™ who would give safety lectures in the workplace. I thought everyone would want to be a Lert™, but I was wrong.
Um. This was current when I was at school (UK, 70s). Some wags used to say that there were now so many lerts about, they'd rather be a Loof.
Posts: 1170 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Hart:
I also use "mentee", as in the person who is mented by their mentor.
More like demented, surely?
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Wm Duncan
Buoy tender
# 3021
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
quote:
Originally posted by Hart:
I also use "mentee", as in the person who is mented by their mentor.
More like demented, surely?
No, you're demented when the mentation is completed, and your mentor goes elsewhere.
From childhood, I remember my parents talking about bishops who used their office forcefully: "He really does bish."
Wm Duncan
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I have overcome a fiercely anti-Catholic upbringing in order to attend Mass simply and solely to escape Protestant guitars. Why am I here? Who gave these nice Catholics guitars?
-- Annie Dillard
Posts: 1193 | From: about 30 km above the Juan de Fuca plate | Registered: Jul 2002
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