back-formation

English

Alternative forms

• backformation, back formation

Etymology

Coined by James Murray; back + formation

Noun

back-formation (plural back-formations)

1. (uncountable, linguistics) The process by which a new word is formed by removing a morpheme (real or perceived) of an older word, such as the verb burgle, formed by removing -ar (perceived as a suffix forming an agent noun) from burglar.
2. (countable) A word created in this way.

   Back-formations, such as "tambour" (for "play the tambourine"), are a staple of comedic wordplay.

Synonyms

• (a word created by back-formation): back-form

Derived terms

• back-form

Translations

linguistic process

French: dérivation régressive (fr) f., dérivation inverse (fr) f., rétroformation (fr) f. Hebrew: גזירה לאחור (he)

Hungarian: elvonás (hu) Norwegian: tilbakedanning (no) c. Portuguese: derivação regressiva (pt) f.

word formed by this linguistic process

Hungarian: elvonás (hu)

Norwegian: tilbakedanning (no) c.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Japanese: 逆成

See also

• Category:Back-formations
• Category:English back-formations