#back-formation

A few weeks ago on this blog, we discussed the origins of the word disheveled and why you can’t properly be heveled. But disheveled is not the only English word with a mysterious root affixed to a common prefix. Dishabille, like disheveled, came into English from French. The French word déshabillé is from the past participle of déshabiller, “to undress.” In the case of dishabille, the word entered English whole, and its French root habiller, “to clothe,” did not make the language jump.

While some roots don’t cross over from their language of origin, others fall out of use. In Modern English you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but being whelmed is out of style. Whelm is entered in the American Heritage Dictionary with an Archaic label, meaning this sense is no longer in current use in English. It means to cover with water or to submerge, and it comes from the Middle English whelmen, “to overturn,” which is derived from Old English hwelfan, “to cover over.”

Disgruntle is another example of a common prefix affixed to a root that is not in use. Gruntle is from the Middle English gruntelen, which is a form of the verb grunten, “to grunt.” Given this origin, one might guess that disgruntled would mean “not grunting” and by extension, not upset (as grunts are typically noises of discontent). However, the dis- here is used as an intensive, yielding disgruntle’s common meaning today, “to make discontented.”

In some cases with well-known prefixes appearing before unfamiliar roots, the root develops a life of its own through a process known as back-formation. Back-formation is when a new word is created by the removal of an affix (or sometimes, by the removal of something mistakenly thought to be an affix) from an existing word. Couth from uncouth and kempt from unkempt are two examples of this. Couth (spelled cūth) was an Old English word while kempt (spelled kembed) was a Middle English word. Both fell into disuse, only to reemerge in Modern English through back-formation.

Another strange linguistics thing that I adore, back-formation is the forming of a new word by removing affixes (usually not actual affixes but parts of the root presumed to be an affix) from another word.

Some Interesting Examples Include…….

The verb enthuse from the noun enthusiasm, which was used as early as 1827 but STILL angers people? That’s just how language works, y’all, if you gon’ be mad about enthuse you can’t use the rest of these words. That’s just how it fuckin’ be.

Singular pea from Middle English plural pease, which was originally singular and collective (like with “wheat” or “corn”).

The word mix was originally in Middle English myxte which sounded like a past participle, even though it wasn’t.

Chemist comes from alchemist, where the “al-” prefix is actually the Arabic definite article “the”. Full etymology is something like greek khuma, fluid, to khumeia, art of alloying metals, to Arabic al-kimiya, to early Latin alchimista, to Medieval Latin (al)chimista, to French chimiste, to Early Modern English chymist to our chemist of today. Of course, we still have the word alchemist but it means finding the ultimate panacea and eternal youth and making gold from, like, iron or something. I fucking love historical linguistics.

The verb escalate from the noun escalator, which was a brand name made from the word escalade plus the suffix “-tor” as in “elevator” (originally the stress was supposed to be on CAL in es-CAL-a-tor, but you don’t always get what you want) and the word escalator was trademarked but rip you really don’t always get what you want. Oh, and then eventually escalate replaced escalade entirely, so, there’s that. (Another side note, the word wasn’t commonly used until its more metaphorical meaning came into play during the cold war)

Other Back-Formations Include…….

donate from donation

edit from editor

televise from television

babysit from babysitter

laze from lazy

grovel from groveling

surreal from surrealism

Etymology: Back-formation from back-formation (n.)

1. To apply the process of back-formation to a lexeme.