Back-formation

Term coined by James Murray, 1889

Word formation — running the machinery in reverse

The making of a new word by removing what looks like an affix from an existing one, so that the shorter word arrives after the longer. English has burglars before it has burgling, editors before editing and television before televising. The process runs against the usual direction of derivation, which is why speakers sometimes object to the results; it nevertheless produced beg, sculpt, diagnose and donate, all of which are now beyond argument. The term itself was coined by James Murray for the Oxford English Dictionary.

How to spot them

▸The longer word is older than the shorter one
▸Burgle from burglar, edit from editor, televise from television
▸Pea and cherry were once singular and were mistaken for plurals
▸The name was coined by the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary

Key facts

The noun for the criminal came first; the verb was made by lopping the end off it

Burglar (c. 1540) gave burgle (1872) and, in American English, burglarize

A word meaning one who prepares a text for publication produced, much later, the verb for what he does

Editor (1649) gave edit (1791)

Norman French cherise was heard as a plural, so English carved a singular out of it

Cherry; the same happened to pease, which gave pea

Televise, donate, diagnose, enthuse and emote were all built backwards out of longer nouns

From television, donation, diagnosis, enthusiasm and emotion

Liaise was manufactured by British army officers in the First World War out of a French noun (1928)

From liaison; first recorded in the 1920s and long disliked by purists

Escalate was made from the trade name of a moving staircase patented in 1900

Escalator came first; escalate long postdates it

The word for the kidnapper is older than the verb for what he does

Kidnapper, 1670s, from kid plus nap, to snatch; kidnap followed

The first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary coined the English name for the process in 1889 (1889)

James Murray

Key ideas

The process depends on a false analysis. Speakers see writer beside write and assume that burglar must likewise sit beside a verb; when there isn't one, they supply it. The new word is perfectly regular even though its history is back to front.
Back-formation is not the same as clipping. Clipping just shortens a word without changing its class or meaning (advertisement to advert); back-formation removes what is taken to be a suffix and produces a word of a different class.

Quick-fire facts

•James Murray coined the term for the Oxford English Dictionary in 1889
•Beg is a back-formation from beggar; grovel from grovelling; sidle from sideling
•Pea comes from pease, which was singular — hence 'pease pudding' and 'pease porridge hot'
•Sculpt comes from sculptor; peddle from pedlar; scavenge from scavenger
•Greed comes from greedy, difficult from difficulty, and jeopardy is unrelated to any verb
•Surveil was formed from surveillance, and self-destruct from self-destruction
•Bicep and kudo are modern back-formations from biceps and kudos, both of which are singular
•Asset is a back-formation from assets, itself from Anglo-Norman asetz, 'enough'
•Sherry comes from sherris, the English rendering of Jerez, taken for a plural
•Laser, radar and scuba are acronyms, not back-formations, though all have since produced verbs

Drill it — 7 cards

1 / 7new card

Sources

David Crystal — The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner — The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar