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 IncludeâŚâŚ.
The verb enthuse from the noun enthusiasm, which was used as early as 1827 but STILL angers people? Thatâs just how language works, yâall, if you gonâ be mad about enthuse you canât use the rest of these words. Thatâs just how it fuckinâ be.
Singular pea from Middle English plural pease, which was originally singular and collective (like with âwheatâ or âcornâ).
The word mix was originally in Middle English myxte which sounded like a past participle, even though it wasnât.
Chemist comes from alchemist, where the âal-â prefix is actually the Arabic definite article âtheâ. 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 â-torâ as in âelevatorâ (originally the stress was supposed to be on CAL in es-CAL-a-tor, but you donât always get what you want) and the word escalator was trademarked but rip you really donât always get what you want. Oh, and then eventually escalate replaced escalade entirely, so, thereâs that. (Another side note, the word wasnât commonly used until its more metaphorical meaning came into play during the cold war)
Other Back-Formations IncludeâŚâŚ.
back-formate from back-formation (how fucking meta is that, eh?)