back-formations

• “Sundry creative back-formations, new words built from elements of preexisting ones, have been made from the word bikini.”

  Simon & Schuster: The English Is Coming!

• “Other back-formations, such as enthuse and liaise, inhabit a grey area of acceptability.”

  April « 2009 « Sentence first

• “It also refers to the words themselves, so back-formations result from back-formation.”

  April « 2009 « Sentence first

• “Regardless of how back-formations are formed, they are often initially considered to be irregular, even ignorant, and suitable only for informal use in slang or jokes.”

  April « 2009 « Sentence first

• “Or The Columbia Guide to Standard American English on irregular common back-formations: coronate (v.) is a Nonstandard back-formation from the noun coronation, perhaps coined first as a jocular nonce word.”

  Obama Camp To Hillary: Not So Fast With That Coronation

• “I confess to prejudice against nonstandard back-formations.”

  Obama Camp To Hillary: Not So Fast With That Coronation

• “As far as the other criticisms in your comment creating barbarous back-formations, being a git, and living in southern California, I'm willing to plead guilty, even though I don't really know what a git is.”

  Your Right Hand Thief

• “Many back-formations originate in college slang, e. g., prof for professor, prom for promenade, soph for sophomore, grad for graduate (noun), lab for laboratory, dorm for dormitory, plebe for plebeian.”

  Chapter 6. Tendencies in American. 3. Processes of Word-Formation

• “Rattler for rattle-snake, pike for turnpike, draw for drawbridge, coon for raccoon, possum for opossum, cuss for customer, cute for acute, squash for askutasquash—these American back-formations are already antique; Sabbaday for Sabbath-day has actually reached the dignity of an archaism, as has the far later chromo for chromolithograph.”

  Chapter 6. Tendencies in American. 3. Processes of Word-Formation

• “The Simpsons might not have coined gruntled, but they did contribute a few novel back-formations, e.g. Otto: “They call ‘em fingers but I never see ‘em fing!””

  Back-forming back-formations

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