Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to a language such as Eskimo or Mohawk, characterized by long, morphologically complex words with a large number of affixes that express syntactic relationships and meanings usually expressed as phrases or sentences in other languages.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In philology, compounded of a number and variety of elements beyond the usual norm; exhibiting excessive intricacy of synthetic structure, as by the incorporation of objective and adverbial elements in the verb forms; incapsulated: as, a, polysynthetic word; characterized by such compounds: as, a polysynthetic language: first applied by Du Ponceau to the class of languages spoken by the Indian tribes of America. Also incorporative and (rarely) megasynthetic.
- In mineralogy, compounded of a number of thin lamellæ) in twinning position to each other, or characterized by this kind of structure: as, a polysynthetic twin. See twin.
Wiktionary
- adj. grammar said of a language, characterized by a prevalence of relatively long words containing a large number of morphemes. Typically, the morphemes are bound (i.e., they cannot stand alone as independent words). An example of a polysynthetic language is Ojibwe, where:
- adj. mineralogy Having layers of twin crystals
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Characterized by polysynthesis; agglutinative.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. forming derivative or compound words by putting together constituents each of which expresses a single definite meaning
Etymologies
- The Ancient Greek prefix poly- + synthetic, from Latin synthesis ("collection, set, composition"), from Ancient Greek σύνθεσις (sunthesis, "composition"), from συντίθημι (suntithēmi, "to put together, combine"), from συν- (sun-, "together") + τίθημι (tithēmi, "to put, place"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰe- (“to put, to do”). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Africa, speak a polysynthetic language, and _per contra_, that the Otomis of Mexico have a monosyllabic one like the Chinese.”
The Myths of the New World A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America
“The languages of the Huron-Iroquois family belong to what has been termed the polysynthetic class, and are distinguished, even in that class, by a more than ordinary endowment of that variety of forms and fullness of expression for which languages of that type are noted.”
“Paonese was of that type known as "polysynthetic," with root words taking on prefixes, affixes and postpositions to extend their meaning.”
“If, therefore, by the term "polysynthetic," which Mr. Duponceau, in 1819, introduced for the class of Indian languages, it be meant that its grammar consists of many syntheses, or plans of thought, it did not appear to me that the Chippewa was polysynthetic.”
Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers
“polysynthetic," which Mr. Duponceau, in 1819, introduced for the class of Indian languages, it be meant that its grammar consists of many syntheses, or plans of thought, it did not appear to me that the Chippewa was polysynthetic.”
Memoirs of 30 Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers
“As Geoffrey Pullum pointed out in the Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, Inuit languages like the west Greenlandic Kalaallisut spoken in Kangerlussuaq, are polysynthetic.”
“It is more accurate to conceive of languages as existing on a continuum, with strictly isolating (consistently one morpheme per word) at one end and highly polysynthetic (in which a single word may contain as much information as an entire English sentence) at the other extreme.”
“French noun phrases retain their lexical grammar and adjective agreement; Cree verbs retain their polysynthetic structure.”
“The hands that held my shoulders loosened and he slipped his arms around me to draw me close to his ample, polysynthetic stuffed breasts.”
“Since the linguists I've read say that none of the typology classifications flexionalal (fusional), agglutinative, isolating (analytical) or polysynthetic fit any language perfectly you probably do have some wiggle room to say that Vietnamese has some non-isolating characteristics.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘polysynthetic’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1695 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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Linguistic lagniappe
Words, phrases, or factoids that don't seem to belong on any of my other lists.
isogloss, polysynthetic, phoneme, morpheme, archiphoneme, diglossia, decreolization, allophone, toneme, allomorph, tone sandhi, group genitive and 21 more...
Tweets
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