shayneswordjournal-blog
Shayne's Word Journal
A journal of interesting words that I have found for my Morphology Course.
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Last Seen Blogs
princeturts
The Once And Future Prince
hacksawvelvet
scott tibbs kisser
57kokokona
57
deadbaguette
the sun will shine on us once more
judgestarling
Judge Starling
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backseat play
a noun incorporated verb created from compound left headed endocentric attributive compound (as it is describing what kind of seat) backseat and verb play. This verb is partially created from the noun-incorporated verbal idiom, “backseat drive,” which refers to someone who tries to give instructions to or criticize a driver as a way of gaining control over the driving. Backseat playing is essentially when one who is watching a game or other activity tries to control a player’s actions or excessively comments on the way they play the game. I heard this compound when my friends and I were playing a card game and someone came over and tried to tell one of us what to play on their turn, to which my friend responded “hey! don’t backseat play!”
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Horse Tornado
a comical term for a carousel, this compound is a left-headed endocentric compound as it is referring to something that seems like a tornado of horses. This compound seems to be attributive, as horse seems to be describing what kind of tornado is being discussed.
I saw this compound in this tweet:
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browbeat
to bear down, discourage, oppose. A noun-incorporated verb with the noun brow incorporated into the verb beat. This verb most likely refers to one “beating” another with a furrowed brow or one lowering one’s brows. I learned of this phrase while looking into noun incorporation when my friend suggested it.
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"browbeat, v." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 26 April 2018.
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Controverted
made the subject of controversy or debate; from controvert and adjectival suffix –ed. Controvert itself comes from the complex Latin roots controvert-, from contra against and vert- (to turn).
"controverted, adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 26 April 2018.
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Lackadaisical
“resembling one who is given to crying ‘lackaday!’; full of vapid feeling or sentient, affectedly languishing.” From interjection “lackadaisy” which comes from a blend made from phrase “alack the day” and the diminutive suffix –y as well as the suffixes –ic and -al which both make adjectives, the latter with the meaning of “of or relating to X”. My recently friend said she read this word in a book and thought it was comical, which was the first time i had ever heard it.
"lackadaisical, adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 3 May 2018.
"alack, int." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 3 May 2018.
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Piecemeal
from noun piece and suffix –meal, which forms adverbs from nouns and means “X by X”. This adverb refers to doing something one step at a time or piece by piece. I have used this word, but only just recently thought to look it up.
"piecemeal, adv., n., and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 3 May 2018.
"-meal, suffix." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 3 May 2018.
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Japanglish
a blend of Japanese and English, a comical term referring to the resulting blend of the two languages when two individuals try to speak either Japanese or English and revert to using phrases or words from the other. This blend was created by deleting the final syllable of Japanese as well as the initial vowel of English, which makes the blend notable as the common trend in English is to not alter the first word in a blend and to make changes if applicable on the second word. My guess for why this did not happen here would be that it is probably easier to say “Japanglish” than “Japaneselish” and the first syllable of English is similar to the second syllable of Japanese. My sister lives in Japan and often uses this word to joke about her difficulties with communicating when her skills in Japanese fall through.
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מַעֲרִיב עֲרׇבִים [maːʔaʁiːv aʁaːviːm]
from Biblical Hebrew - from an evening prayer called the Ma’ariv aravim. The phrase above literally translates to “(one) evening-ing evenings,” in other words, “one who evening-izes evenings” or “one who causes evenings to be evenings.” Both Hebrew words come from the root ערב (consonants [ʔ/ʢ/silent], [ʁ], and [v]), but this root is normally just used as a noun (singular עֶרֶב [ɛʁɛv] “evening”, plural [aʁavim]). The second word of this phrase is a very straightforwards pluralized noun from this root.
However, in the first word, we see the templatic morphology of a causative verb in participle form (the [ma] at the front of the root as well as the glottal stop and shortening of the first vowel, and the [i] vowel between the middle and final consonants). So, we are essentially seeing a root that is almost always a noun being inflected as a verb would be - causing it’s meaning to change from “evening” to “causing X to (be an) evening.”
In English, this process would be considered creative - as we normally would not add verb inflection to nouns that do not have a verbal counterpart. The translation “one who evening-ifies evenings” shows this creative process in action. I do not have enough information/data in the Biblical Hebrew to tell if this is a productive process or creative, however, as I have seen more than one example of this occuring, but both in the same text or similar texts (i.e. I have seen a sentence that talked about God creating the universe and “clouding clouds” / “making clouds be clouds”). Even if this process is productive in Hebrew, I still thought it was a notable enough use of inflection and templatic morphology to warrant an in-depth discussion.
NOTE: I included vowel lengthening diacritics in the title of this post, but this was more so to clearly show the shortening of the first vowel of the root in both words due to certain phonological constraints that go along with the first consonant of the root - I am not positive that it would be entirely accurate to treat the other vowels as lengthened vowels, but I was unsure how to denote the shortening of the specific vowels in question.
For the full Hebrew text and transliteration/translation of the Ma’ariv Aravim prayer, go to https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/93763 (note the sub-title “the God who evenings the evenings”).
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byzantine
an eponymic adjective from the name of the city Byzantium; relating to the intricacies of Byzantine politics, byzantine refers to something that is complex/rigid/complicated. From Latin Byzantium and -ine suffix, which forms adjectives.
"Byzantine, adj. and n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 17 April 2018. (see definition #2)
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canoodle
“intr. To indulge in caresses and fondling endearments. Also formerly trans., to persuade by endearments or deception.“ unknown origin. I was hoping to be able to find out where this verb comes from/see what sort of morphological changes have occurred in its development, but my research didn’t turn anything up. My best guess would be that it kind of sounds like “cuddle” - maybe some sort of diminutive or “cutesy” infixation or some process we don’t really see much of occurring in the middle of the root to get this word. Perhaps it’s a nonce word that someone just came up that happened to become accepted.
"canoodle, v." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 3 April 2018.
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promontory
“A point of high land which juts out into the sea or another expanse of water; a headland.“ From Latin promontorium “headland, promontory, spur of a mountain ridge” from root mont- (from mons, montis) meaning “mountain” and prefix pro- meaning “forward” as well as suffix -ory which creates adjectives with the meaning “of or relating to X” and generally attaches to latinate verbal roots (for example: ambulatory).
"promontory, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 14 April 2018.
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teacherpreneur
a blend of teacher and entrepreneur - an educator who uses imaginative and creative ways of leading classrooms as well as applying their creativity elsewhere in the schooling system - mostly through some form of innovation (much like, apparently, an entrepreneur). I first saw this on a twitter feed (linked below) about educators and ensuring that those who are educators are supported and encouraged. This blend follows the general English pattern of keeping the entirety of the first word of a blend intact and deleting a portion of the second word. Here teacher is entirely pronounced, but entre from entrepreneur is deleted.
defintion from:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/era-of-teacherpreneur-heather-wolpert-gawron
twitter feed: https://twitter.com/mreichenser/status/982672759632420864
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pinterestingly
from website name pinterest ( a blend between pin and interest), with adjectival/participial suffix -ing and adverbial suffix -ly, meaning something resembling what one might find in a pinterest post (i.e. well done crafts/beautiful interior design/art/diy’s).
from https://twitter.com/mreichenser/status/982672759632420864?
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milquetoast
a timid or submissive individual. An eponymic noun from Caspar Milquetoast, a comic strip character who was popular the 1920′s and was named after the then popular American dish “milk toast,” which is itself a right-headed endocentric compound.
"Milquetoast, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 17 April 2018.
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aberrant
adj - abnormal, deviant, diverging from the norm/a standard. From now mostly unused verb aberr, which itself comes from French aberrer, which in turn comes from Latin ab- prefix “from/away” and errare, “to wander, err”, as well as the suffix -ant which creates an adjective.
"aberr, v." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 17 April 2018.
"aberrant, adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 17 April 2018.
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Repudiate
to cast off, disown, divorce, dismiss, or reject. Transitive verb from (historic) noun repudy “divorce/rejection” and the suffix -ate which transforms nouns into verbs.
"repudiate, v." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2018. Web. 17 April 2018.
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Hedgedog
a blend of hedgehog and dog - a comedic term used to describe a dog who appears similar to a hedgehog. This blend is notable as it does not include the entirely of the leftmost term but rather only uses the first syllable. The final syllable of hedgehog and dog sound very similar, so the last syllable of hedgehog was deleted and dog took its place.
I saw this word used in the following tumblr post:
(I tried to find the original URL of the post but couldn’t)
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