Libfix Explained

In linguistics, a libfix is a productive bound morpheme affix created by rebracketing and back-formation, often a generalization of a component of a blended or portmanteau word. For example, walkathon was coined in 1932 as a blend of walk and marathon,[1] and soon thereafter the -athon part was reinterpreted as a libfix meaning "event or activity lasting a long time or involving a great deal of something".[2] [3] Words formed with this suffix include talkathon, telethon, hackathon, and so on. Affixes whose morpheme boundaries are etymologically based, and which are used in their original sense, are not libfixes. Libfixes often utilise epenthesis, as in the example of -holism and -holic which are joined with consonant-final segments via the vowel /a/, creating work-a-holism or sex-a-holism.

History

Splinters were defined by Berman in 1961 as non-morphemic word fragments. This includes not just libfixes, but also word fragments which become words, like burger (< hamburger), flu (< influenza), and net (< network).[4] [5] [6]

The name libfix was coined by Arnold Zwicky in 2010 as a blend of "liberated" and "affix" specifically for splinters used as productive morphemes.[7]

Criticism

Some of these formations have been considered barbarisms by prescriptive writers on style,[8] though other writers have praised them. Speaking of the -tron suffix, a philologist commented:

I once heard an unkind critic allude disparagingly to these neologisms as dog-Greek. To a lover of the language of Sophocles and Plato these recent coinages may indeed appear to be Greek debased. More appropriately, perhaps, they might be termed lion-Greek or chameleon-Greek. They are Neo-Hellenic in the genuine Renaissance tradition.[9]

Examples

Each example gives the affix, the source word(s) from which it was formed, the meaning, and examples.

This list does not include:

English

Suffixes

-ana
  • things related to a given person, place, period
  • Churchilliana, Americana, Victoriana
    -ase
  • an enzyme
  • lactase, polymerase
    -cation
  • kinds of vacation
  • staycation, girlcation
    -cel
  • used ironically for various group descriptions in internet slang
  • wordcel, theorycel (see wiktionary)
    -copter
  • having a spinning rotor allowing for flight
  • gyrocopter
    -core
  • aesthetic
  • speedcore, grindcore, cottagecore, bardcore
    -dar
  • the skill of detecting qualities or things
  • gaydar, humordar, Jewdar
    -erati
  • groups of people with common interests
  • digerati, glitterati
    -flation [10]
  • economic inflation in a particular field
  • tipflation, stagflation, shrinkflation
    -gasm
  • an intensely pleasurable experience
  • foodgasm, cargasm, shoegasm, nerdgasm
    -gate
  • a scandal
  • gamergate, troopergate; see List of "-gate" scandals
    -(m)(a)geddon
  • major disasters (usually facetious)
  • snowgeddon, Irmageddon
    -(a)holic, -(a)holism
  • addict(ed)
  • shopaholic, workaholic, sexaholic; see English terms suffixed with -holic
    -kini
  • type of bathing suit
  • burkini, monokini, tankini
    -(i/e/a/∅)licious
  • a high degree of some property (usually jocular)[11]
  • bootylicious, babelicious, yummalicious, sacrilicious, crunchalicious
    -(o)nomics
  • an economic policy or philosophy
  • Reaganomics, freakonomics
    -ola
  • used to form commercial products; later, for forms of bribery[12]
  • Victrola, moviola, shinola; payola, plugola
    -oma
  • a kind of tumor, swelling, or cancer
  • melanoma, adenoma, papilloma
    -ome, -omics
  • a map of a biological system; and other uses in biology
  • connectome, proteome; biome, rhizome, vacuome
    -on
  • an elementary particle or quasiparticle
  • proton, neutron, meson, phonon, etc.; see List of particles
    -preneur
  • an entrepreneur in some domain
  • intrapreneur, ecopreneur, mompreneur
    -pocalypse
  • a catastrophic event
  • snowpocalypse, robopocalypse, beepocalypse
    -tard
  • people who are foolish or stupid; pejorative
  • fucktard, libtard
    -(a)thon, -a-thon
  • things that last a long time or require remarkable endurance
  • walkathon, telethon, hackathon
    -tron [8]
  • a kind of vacuum tube; a subatomic particle; a device
  • magnetron; positron; cyclotron
    -verse
  • the collection of all things in a category, or a fictional universe
  • blogoverse, Twitterverse, Whoniverse
    -wich
  • sandwich
  • fishwich, hamwich, snackwich
    -zilla
  • monstrous, scary, or large things; can function as an augmentative and pejorative
  • bridezilla, Mozilla

    Prefixes

    alt-
  • outside the mainstream
  • alt-rock, alt-right
    cyber-
  • issues or policies related to computers
  • cyberspace, cybercrime
    eco-
  • related to the environment, to ecology, or to sustainability
  • eco-terrorism, eco-nationalism, eco-investing
    econo-
  • related to economics; economical, inexpensive
  • econometrics (not *economometrics), econophysics; econobox
    franken-
  • related to “human efforts to interfere with nature”[13] [14]
  • frankenfood, frankenplant, frankenscience
    glut-
  • related to glutamic acid, one of the amino acids
  • glutamine, glutamate
    heli-
  • types of helicopters; things related to helicopters[15]
  • helibus; helipad, heliport, helidrome, heliborne
    petro-
  • things related to petroleum
  • petrodollar, petrochemical, petrocurrency
    syn-
  • synthetic; related to (musical) synthesizers
  • syngas, synfuel, syncrude, Synclavier

    Italian

    Suffix

    -opoli
  • a scandal
  • Bancopoli, Calciopoli

    Bibliography

    Notes

    1. Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2009, s.v. walkathon
    2. Merriam-Webster dictionary online s.v. -athon
    3. Oxford English Dictionary, 1972, s.v. -athon
    4. Laurie Bauer, "The borderline between derivation and compounding", p. 97-108 in Morphology and its Demarcations, Selected papers from the 11th Morphology Meeting, Vienna, February 2004
    5. J.M. Berman, "Contribution on Blending", Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 9:278-281 (1961) (not seen)
    6. Ingrid Fandrych, "Submorphemic elements in the formation of acronyms, blends and clippings", Lexis: Journal in English Lexicology 2 (2008)
    7. "Libfixes", Arnold Zwicky's Blog, January 23, 2010
    8. Tom McArthur, ed., The Oxford companion to the English language, 1992,, s.v. 'Greek', p. 453-454
    9. Simeon Potter, Our Language, 1950, as quoted in Tom McArthur, ed., The Oxford companion to the English language, 1992,, s.v. 'Greek', p. 453-454
    10. Web site: -flation . 2023-05-09 . www.affixes.org . en-gb.
    11. Zwicky, 2006
    12. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. -ola suffix 2
    13. Web site: Waldman . Katie . How Franken- Lurched Its Way Into Our Lexicon . January 6, 2017 . .
    14. Web site: 'Frankenstein' and 'Frankenfood': Creator or creation? . .
    15. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. heli-, combining form

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