Abbreviated CFs are obtained by shortening existing words and combining them with bases. From the formal viewpoint, because of their boundedness, they are similar to affixes. Moreover, like the neoclassical CFs explored in Chapter 4, abbreviated ICFs are dominant, in a 2:1 ratio with abbreviated FCFs in my dataset. Their context of use fluctuates from colloquial environments to information technology, from physics to entertainment. Like abbreviations in general, they can enrich informal vocabulary as well as serve specialised terminology.
Abbreviated CFs differ from secreted CFs, which will be the object of analysis of the next chapter, from a purely semantic standpoint (see abbreviation vs secretion in § 2.4.7). While formally they are both obtained from the deletion of initial or final material, from the semantic viewpoint abbreviated CFs retain all the semantic content of their source lexemes. By contrast, secreted CFs display more specific semantic nuances or acquire a more general meaning than their source lexemes, that is, they are reinterpreted and entail abstraction, like affixes.
The analysis of abbreviated CFs provided in this chapter is corpus-based, with a final study of their diachronic evolution from the second half of the twentieth century. For the analysis, the same methodology adopted for neoclassical CFs is implemented (see Chapter 4). However, close reading of contextualised examples has been necessary in this case, in order to distinguish abbreviated CFs from secreted CFs. Some of the CFs in the dataset, indeed, have a twofold nature, being used as merely abbreviated on some occasions, when all semantic meaning is kept, but involving reinterpretation on others, when some features are maintained and others discarded. In combinations that apparently display the same string, careful examination of the bases to which the CFs attach has been crucial to discriminate between the two categories and to count them within the related type/token frequency.
5.1 Description and Corpus-Based Investigation of Abbreviated Combining Forms
The abbreviated CFs recorded in the OED in the interval between 1950 and 2000 are described in the following sections, with a subdivision into ICFs (§§ 5.1.1–5.1.15) and final FCFs (§§ 5.1.16–5.1.22).
5.1.1 atto-
The ICF atto- is obtained by shortening either Danish or Norwegian atten ‘eighteen’, with an -o- linking element. Attested in the OED from 1961, in scientific fields atto- is prefixed to the name of a unit of measurement to denote ‘a factor of 10−18’, as in attomole, atto-second, etc. Therefore, it is very similar to tera- (§ 4.1.10) or zepto- (§ 4.1.13), but its origin is not neoclassical.
COCA: attosecond (42 occ./0.04), atto-gram, atto-tech, attophysics
NOW: attosecond (435 occ./0.08), attogram (11 occ./0.00), attomole (9 occ./0.00), attosecond-scale (8 occ./0.00), attometer (7 occ./0.00), atto(-)science (6 occ./0.00), attojoule, attonewton (5 occ./0.00), attophysics (4 occ./0.00), attoelectronics, attosecond-timed, attowatt, attosecond(s)-long (2 occ./0.00), attosecond-duration, attosecond-nanometer, atto-tesla, attophysical
In three attoseconds, a beam of light traveling 300,000 kilometers per second can get only from one side of a water molecule to the other.
5.1.2 Brit-1
The origin of the ICF Brit-1 is as a shortening of the adjective British (but cf. also the independent use of Brit, both as a noun to refer to ‘a British person’ and as an adjective for ‘British’, already occurring from 1948). It has been recorded in the OED since 1977, when it started to be prefixed to nouns (frequently forming nonce words) to denote things which are British in origin, British-made, or British-based, as in Britcom, which refers to either ‘a comedy film produced or set in the United Kingdom; a British comedy film’ [1977] or, more recently, ‘a British sitcom’ [1982]. This CF, however, has later extended its meaning and has been used more specifically as a secreted form (cf. § 6.1.3).
COCA: Brit(-)com (14 occ./0.01), Britmum (7 occ./0.01), Brit(-)speak (5 occ./0.00), Britmania (4 occ./0.00), Brit-based, Brit-centric (2 occ./0.00), BritAmerican, Brit-love, Brit-Nazi-speak, Brit-born, Brit-Asian, Brit-crime, Brit-eminence, Brit-English, Brit-face, Brit-flavored, Brit-hating, Brit-heavy
NOW: Brit(-)com (78 occ./0.01), Britcar (51 occ./0.01), Brit-Asian (44 occ./0.01), Britcoin (39 occ./0.01), Brit-born (34 occ./0.01), BritRail (33 occ./0.01), Britexit (23 occ./0.00), Britmum (20 occ./0.00), Brit-based, Brit(-)speak (16 occ./0.00), Britweek, Brit-centric, Brit-award (13 occ./0.00), Brit(-)bike (11 occ./0.00), Brit-folk (10 occ./0.00), Brit-heavy, Brit-built (9 occ./0.00), BritAsia, Brit-winner, Brit-Indian (6 occ./0.00), Brit-TV, Brit-girl, Brit-hating, Brit-accented, Brit-award-winning
This tied in to the start of the episode, where a Britcom he’s watching on PBS gets cut short by the announcement of a pledge drive.
5.1.3 cyber-
Shortened from cybernetic,Footnote 1 the ICF cyber- was originally (from 1961) used to create words, mainly nouns relating to computers, information technology, and virtual reality, or denoting futuristic concepts. Later, cyber- was specifically used to form terms relating to the Internet, probably influenced by cyberspace. Formations include established terms, such as cyberart, cyber-attack, cybercommunity, cybercrime, cyberfriend, cyberlover, cyber-romance, cyberspeak, cybersphere, cyberterrorism, and cyberworld, as well as temporary nonce words (cybercubicle, cyberfeminist, cybersnob). The CF has also converted into a free-standing adjective cyber [1992] meaning ‘relating to, or involving (the culture of) computers’, but its origin is clearly as an abbreviated form and not as an independent word. Examples such as cyber affair and cyber age, spelt as two separate words, are closer to compounds (see (k) Solid/hyphenated spelling in Table 2.1).
COCA: cyber(-)space (2,487 occ./2.29), cyber(-)security (1,566 occ./1.44), cyber(-)attack (778 occ./0.72), cyber(-)bullying (410 occ./0.38), cyber(-)crime (363 occ./0.33), cyber(-)punk (354 occ./0.33), cyberman (183 occ./0.17), cyber(-)sex (160 occ./0.15), cyber(-)criminal (145 occ./0.12), cyber(-)war (136 occ./0.11), cyber(-)warfare (108 occ./0.09), cyber(-)threat (96 occ./0.09), cyber(-)shot (86 occ./0.08), cyber(-)weapon (84 occ./0.08), cyber(-)terrorism (81 occ./0.07), cyber(-)stalking (75 occ./0.07), cyber(-)world, cyber(-)espionage (58 occ./0.05), cyber(-)infrastructure (56 occ./0.05), cyber(-)power (47 occ./0.04), cyber(-)defense (39 occ./0.04), cyber(-)psychology, cyber(-)terrorist (36 occ./0.03), , cyber(-)spying (25 occ./0.02), cyber(-)stalker, cyber(-)culture (24 occ./0.02), cyberforce (23 occ./0.02), cyberknife (20 occ./0.02), cybertronian (19 occ./0.02), cyberlink, cybertheorist, cyber(-)harassment (18 occ./0.01), cybertheft, cyber(-)spy (16 occ./0.01), cybergate, cyber(-)school, cyber(-)angel (15 occ./0.01), cyber(-)glove, cyberlocker (13 occ./0.01), cybernaut, cyberporn, cyber(-)thief, cyberneuron, cyberart (12 occ./0.01), cyber-related, cyber(-)mall (11 occ./0.01), cyberspeak, cyber(-)assault, cyber(-)community, cyber(-)attacker, cybertracker, cyber(-)conflict, cybervision, cyber(-)friend (10 occ./0.01), cyber(-)fraud, cyberlearning, cyber(-)citizen, cyber-matter, cyber-physical, cybercop, cyber-utopian, cyber(-)tool, cyber(-)anarchist, cyber(-)activity (9 occ./0.01), cyberpatrol, cyber(-)warrior, cyber-politics, cyber(-)protection, cybersurfer, cybertext (8 occ./0.01), cyber-operation, cyber-bullied, cyber-domain, cyberform, cyber(-)offense, cyberware, cyber(-)sphere, cyber(-)intrusion, cyber(-)age (7 occ./0.01), cyber(-)relationship, cyber(-)life, cybersupremacist, cyber-stalked, cyber(-)forensics, cyber-controller, cyber(-)terror, cyber(-)army, cyber(-)sabotage, cyber-libertarian, cyber(-)land, cyber(-)shopping, cyber(-)organic, cyber(-)expert (6 occ./0.01), cyber-squatting, cyber-journalist, cyber-guerrilla, cyber(-)technology, cybercourt, cyberrobber, cyberscape, cybersecurity-related, cyber(-)sexual, cybersociety, cyberphobia, cyber(-)future, cyberpolice, cyber(-)animal, cyberstrike, cyber(-)gang, cybersquatter, cybertalk, cyber(-)time, cyber(-)bar, cyberworm, Cyber(-)Monday, cyber(-)geek, cyber-reality, cyber(-)realm (5 occ./0.00), cyberunderground, cyberworker, cyberphysiology, cyberpet, cyberedge, cyberdating, cyberhike, cyberkid, cybercoin, cyberball, cyberartist, cyber-deterrence, cyber-capability, cyber-karma, cyber-intelligence, cyber-incident, cybercycle, cyberdistrict, cyber(-)athlete, cyber(-)dog, cyber(-)system, cyber(-)drama, cyber(-)chatting, cyber(-)safety, cyber(-)insecurity, cyber(-)specific, cyber(-)site (4 occ./0.00), cyber-stalk, cyber-hygiene, cyber-detective, cyber-mental, cyber-attacking, cyber-command, cyber-economy, cyber(-)store, cyber-enhanced, cyber-dissident, cyber-hacking, cyber-university, cyberbabe, cyberchondria, cyberhosting, cybergolf, cyberdeck, cybercrush, cybercreep, cybergenetics, cybergenic, cybersexuality, cyberservant, cyberself, cyberreal, cybermob, cybermedicine, cyberthriller, cyber(-)hero, cyber(-)policy, cyber-supervision, cyber(-)secure, cyberversion (3 occ./0.00), cybervirus, cyberunit, cybertrading, cybertraveler, cyberwoman, cyberzine, cyberzone, cybersuit, cybertaxonomy, cyberteam, cyberthought, cybertour, cybertown, cybernet, cybernerd, cybermedic, cybermobbing, cybermom, cyberpirate, cyberpistol, cyberport, cyberpayment, cyberprompter, cyberrace, cyberskeptic, cybersickness, cyberfeminism, cyberfield, cyberfight, cyberfire, cyberethics, cybercriminality, cyberguy, cybergossip, cyberintervention, cyberlawyer, cyberlord, cyber(-)city, cybercat, cyberburglar, cyberbrain, cyber-vulnerability, cyber-villain, cyber-universe, cyberalert, cyberagent, cyberaction, cyber-utopia, cyber-utopianism, cyber-typical, cyber-tropic, cyber-trash, cyber-student, cyber-surveillance, cyber-gallery, cyber-friendship, cyber-focused, cyber-existence, cyber-fighting, cyber-democracy, cyber-driven, cyber-engineering, cyber-connection, cyber-conversation, cyber-counterattack, cyber-capable, cyber-bullet, cyber-campaign, cyber-chase, cyber-church, cyber-boom, cyber-based, cyber-begging, cyber-activist, cyber-mobbed, cyber-offensive, cyber-investigation, cyber-investing, cyber-investor, cyber-kidnapping, cyber-kit, cyber-incursion, cyber-insurance, cyber-insurgency, cyber-legislation, cyber-library, cyber-specialist, cyber-speed, cyber-selection, cyber-social, cyber-response, cyber-revenge, cyber-skill, cyber-screaming, cyber-sea, cyber(-)shop, cyber-research, cyber-resource, cyber-property, cyber-literacy, cyber-actor, cyber-protest, cyber-lover (2 occ./0.00), cyber-reconfiguration, cyber-pedlar, cyber-rank, cyber-ready, cyber-realist, cyber-sale, cyber-scheme, cyber-safe, cyber-revolution, cyber-romance, cyber-risk, cyber-soldier, cyber-soul, cyber-soup, cyber-skin, cyber-rooting, cyber-service, cyber-sensual, cyber-spiritual, cyber-sport, cyber-Spanglish, cyber-spectacles, cyber-speculatively, cyber-smart, cyber-star, cyber-steal, cyber-stealing, cyber-steroid, cyber-strategy, cyber-street, cyber-maniac, cyber-manipulation, cyber-manner, cyber-market, cyber-logistically, cyber-linked, cyber-liability, cyber-liberation, cyber-intellectual, cyber-infiltrator, cyber-influence, cyber-hypocrisy, cyber-immortality, cyber-implant, cyber-knight, cyber-junk, cyber-job, cyber-journal, cyber-pressure, cyber-piracy, cyber-play, cyber-optimism, cyber-option, cyber-organism, cyber-organization, cyber-page, cyber-paradise, cyber-people, cyber-oil, cyber-mystery, cyber-name, cyber-news, cyber-newsletter, cyber-object, cyber-murder, cyber-museum, cyber-model, cyber-mind, cyber-missile, cyber-mission, cyber-architecture, cyber-arm, cyber-adversary, cyber-affair, cyber-aggressive, cyber-anarchism, cyber-acting, cyber-addicted, cyber-basis, cyber-attacked, cyber-boundary, cyber-boutique, cyber-body, cyber-cinema, cyber-civil, cyber-campus, cyber-business, cyber-country, cyber-creature, cyber-conversion, cyber-conspiracy, cyber-control, cyber-company, cyber-engineer, cyber-emergency, cyber-factory, cyber-family, cyber-fiction, cyber-evolution, cyber-drone, cyber-dream, cyber-development, cyber-dialogue, cyber-dimension, cyber-death, cyber-debate, cyber-crowd, cyber-finance, cyber-experiment, cyber-flower, cyber-hater, cyber-harasser, cyber-highway, cyber-home, cyber-hacker, cyber-girl, cyber-style, cyber-term, cyber-knight
NOW: cyber(-)space (2,487 occ./2.29), cyber(-)security (1,560 occ./1.44), cyber(-)attack (769 occ./0.72), cyber(-)bullying (410 occ./0.38), cyber(-)crime (363 occ./0.33), cyberpunk (352 occ./0.33), cyberman (183 occ./0.17), cyber(-)sex (160 occ./0.15), cyber(-)criminal (145 occ./0.12), cyber(-)war (136 occ./0.12), cyber(-)warfare (106 occ./0.09), cyber(-)threat (94 occ./0.09), cyber(-)weapon (84 occ./0.08), cyber-shot (83 occ./0.08), cyber(-)terrorism (81 occ./0.07), cyber(-)stalking (75 occ./0.07), cyber(-)world (58 occ./0.05), cyber-espionage (57 occ./0.05), cyber(-)infrastructure (56 occ./0.05), cyber(-)power (46 occ./0.04), cybercafe, cyber(-)defense (39 occ./0.04), cyber(-)psychology, cyber(-)terrorist (36 occ./0.03), cyber(-)culture (24 occ./0.02), cyberforce (23 occ./0.02), cyber(-)stalker (22 occ./0.02), cyberknife, cyber(-)hug (20 occ./0.02), cybercash, cybertheorist, cyber(-)harassment, cybertech (18 occ./0.01), cybercast (17 occ./0.01), cyberthief, cyber(-)spy (16 occ./0.01), cyberking, cybergate, cyberlaw, cyber(-)school, cyber(-)spying (15 occ./0.01), cyber-vulnerability, cybernet (14 occ./0.01), cyberlocker (13 occ./0.01), cyberporn, cybernaut, cybermart, cyber(-)theft, cyber(-)expert (12 occ./0.01), cyber-related, cyber(-)friend, cybermedia, cybersitter (11 occ./0.01), cyberspeak, cyber(-)assault, cyber-conflict, cyberbully (10 occ./0.01), cyberlearning, cyber-matter, cyber-physical, cyberhero, cyber(-)utopian, cyber(-)technology, cybercop, cyber(-)fraud, cyber(-)tool, cyber(-)community, cyberattacker, cyber(-)citizen (9 occ./0.01), cybertracker, cybersource, cyberpatrol, cyber-politics, cyber(-)warrior, cyber(-)campus, cybermall, cybervision, cybertext, cyber(-)protection, cybersurfer (8 occ./0.01), cyber-only, cyber(-)activity, cyber-operation, cyber-bullied, cyber-domain, cyber(-)shopping, cyberanarchist, cyberform, cybernation, cyberthon, cyberware, cyber(-)offense, cyber(-)age, cyber(-)mind, cyber(-)sphere (7 occ./0.01), cybersupremacist, cyber-stalked, cyber-controller, cyber(-)life, cyber(-)intrusion, cyber(-)sabotage (6 occ./0.01), cyber-squatting, cyber-journalist, cyber-libertarian, cyber-guerrilla, cyberart, cyberland, cyberrobber, cyberscape, cybersociety, cyberphobia, cyberpolice, cybertalk, cyberterror, cyber(-)realm, cyber(-)time, cyber(-)gang, Cyber(-)Monday, cyber(-)future, cyber(-)dating, cyberworm (5 occ./0.00), cyberunderground, cybertronic, cyberworker, cyberphysiology, cyberpet, cybersexual, cybergenics, cyberhike, cyberkid, cybercoin, cyber(-)animal, cyberball, cyberartist, cyber(-)system, cyberactor, cyber-capability, cyber-karma, cyber-intelligence, cybercycle, cyber-reality, cyber(-)relationship, cyber(-)drama, cyber(-)store (4 occ./0.00), cyber-right, cyber-stalk, cyber-hygiene, cyber-detective, cyber-mental, cyber-attacking, cyber(-)shop, cyber-command, cyber-economy, cyber-university, cyberarmy, cyberathlete, cyberchatting, cybergolf, cyberdog, cybergenetics, cybersexuality, cyberservant, cybersafety, cyberreal, cyber-friendship, cybermedicine, cyberthriller, cyberversion, cyber(-)policy (3 occ./0.00), cybervirus, cyberunit, cybertrading, cybertraveler, cyberwoman, cyberzine, cyberzone, cybersuit, cybertaxonomy, cyberteam, cybertour, cybernerd, cyberpayment, cyberprocess, cyberpromo, cyberfeminism, cyberfield, cyberfight, cyberethics, cybercriminality, cyberhacker, cyberguy, cybergossip, cybercity, cyberburglar, cyber-villain, cyber-universe, cyberalert, cyberagent, cyberaction, cyber-utopia, cyber-lover, cyber-student, cyber-gallery, cyber-conversation, cyber-campaign, cyber-kidnapping, cyber-social, cyber-revenge, cyber-business (2 occ./0.00), cyber-protest, cyber-sale, cyber-secure, cyber-safe, cyber-revolution, cyber-romance, cyber-risk, cyber-service, cyber-sport, cyber-skill, cyber-star, cyber-steal, cyber-stealing, cyber-maniac, cyber-market, cyber-intellectual, cyber-infiltrator, cyber-influence, cyber-journal, cyber-piracy, cyber-option, cyber-organism, cyber-organization, cyber-page, cyber-peril, cyber-mystery, cyber-name, cyber-news, cyber-murder, cyber-museum, cyber-mission, cyber-adversary, cyber-affair, cyber-addicted, cyber-creature, cyber-conspiracy, cyber-control, cyber-company, cyber-encounter, cyber-emergency, cyber-family, cyber-fanatic, cyber-fantasy, cyber-fiction, cyber-evolution, cyber-development, cyber-dimension, cyber-debate, cyber-crowd, cyber-finance, cyber-experiment, cyber-friendly, cyber-gambling, cyber-hater, cyber-girl, cyber-style, cyber-strike, cyber-terror
Fraudsters are exploiting the crisis to facilitate fraud and cybercrime.
5.1.4 digi-1
Shortened from the adjective digital, digi-1 is an ICF attested from 1960 to form nouns denoting ‘a digital device, system, etc.’, as in digibox, digicam. Later its meaning has been reinterpreted and, as a result, the ICF has become secreted (cf. § 6.1.4).
COCA: digicam (96 occ./0.09), digicorder (27 occ./0.02), digiPad (22 occ./0.02), Digi(-)Walker (15 occ./0.01), digitech (13 occ./0.01), digipack (6 occ./0.00), digipay, digivid (4 occ./0.00), Digibot, digidollar (3 occ./0.00), Digiceiver, digibox, digimage, digicode, digi-spectacles (2 occ./0.00), digitape, digi-drum, digi-spoon, digicell, digiPod
NOW: digi(-)cam (167 occ./0.03), digi(-)box (68 occ./0.01), digi(-)pack (35 occ./0.01), digiPad (34 occ./0.01), digipay (32 occ./0.01), Digipos (26 occ./0.00), digicell (19 occ./0.00), DigiBot, digicamera, digiphone, digicard, digi-payment
Though ubiquitous digicams and smartphones have now made their services much harder to sell, this is their craft.
5.1.5 dino-
Since 1986 dino- has been prefixed to nouns forming chiefly nonce words relating to dinosaur(s), from which the CF is shortened (cf. the back-clipping dino [1936] used as a colloquial noun to refer to ‘a dinosaur’). Some examples attested in the OED include dinomania, dinomaniac, and Dino-store. In palaeontology and geology, dino- is combined with -turbation to form dinoturbation [1980] ‘the disturbance of layers of sediment by dinosaur trampling’, analogically formed after bioturbation and cryoturbation.
COCA: Dino(-)bot (36 occ./0.03), Dinotopia (32 occ./0.03), Dinosphere, dino-mite (10 occ./0.01), dinotower (9 occ./0.01), Dino-Mom (7 occ./0.01), Dinoland, dino-dude, dino-chicken (4 occ./0.00), dinoshark, dinoroo (3 occ./0.00), Dino-rider, dino-roar, dino-cam, dino-boy, Dinomorph, Dinofest, Dinoseum, dino(-)burger, dino-killer (2 occ./0.00), Dinospectrum, Dinotainment, dinotarian, dinorevolution, Dinorock, Dinodifferent, Dinofaithful, Dinopainting, Dinopedia, dinomania, dinomaniac, dinofuzz, dino-alien, dino-baby, dino-bird, dino-car, dino-bodied, dino-butt, dino-cool, dino-cowboy, dino-DNA, dino-soldier, dino-shaped, dino-size, dino-snack, dino-toy, dino-world, dino-obsessed, dino-kid, dino-fan, dinoverse
NOW: Dino(-)bot (271 occ./0.05), dino-bird (55 occ./0.01), Dinoland (49 occ./0.01), dino(-)mite (46 occ./0.01), Dinofest (43 occ./0.01), dino(-)shark (31 occ./0.01), Dino-rider (28 occ./0.01), Dinotopia (25 occ./0.00), dino-chicken (22 occ./0.00), dino-sized (15 occ./0.00), dino-killing (12 occ./0.00), dinosphere (11 occ./0.00), dino(-)phile, dino(-)park (10 occ./0.00), dinopaw (9 occ./0.00), dino-centric, dino-fuzz (8 occ./0.00), dino-era, Dinoscovery, dino-loving, dino-juice, dino-fan (6 occ./0.00), dino-tastic, dino-hunting, dino-DNA, dino(-)bat (5 occ./0.00), dino-obsessed, dino-related, dino-cloning, dino-dragon, dinomation, dinopedia, dino(-)world (4 occ./0.00), dino-whisperer, dinofish, dino-crazy, dino-fever, dino-entertainment, dino(-)robot, dino-friend, dino-riding (3 occ./0.00), dino-killer, dino-lover, dino-lizard, dino-stamp, dino-tamer, dino-taming, dino-size, dino-shaped, dino-sequel, dino-parent, dino-hero, dino-history, dino-enthusiast, dino-drama, dino-beast, dino-video, dino-zoo, dinorama, dinopolis, dino-turtle, dino(-)mobile, dino-movie (2 occ./0.00), Dinopocalypse, Dinoman, dinomaniac, dinomuseum, dino-war, dino-whale, dino-wing, Dinofarm, dino-action, dino-adventure, dino-alien, dino-apocalypse, dino-Armageddon, dino-arm, dino-attack, dino-baby, dino-burger, dino-card, dino-disaster, dino-dress, dino-drone, dino-duck, dino-dude, Dino-crisis, dino-combat, dino-breeding, dino-costumed, dino-fight, dino-economics, dino-egg, dino-embryo, dino-dog, dino-fanatic, dino-expert, dino-family, dino-hunt, dino-giraffe, dino-friendly, dino-revival, dino-revolt, dino-rhinoceros, dino-puppet, dino-scientist, dino-safari, dino-snake, dino-skin, dino-skull, dino-study, dino-survival, dino-pigeon, dino-mouse, dino-magination, dino-mania
I mean, Dino-Mom thinks we’re her kids, and it’d be rude to just leave, right?
5.1.6 e-1
The ICF e-1 is earliest attested in 1969 with the meaning electric, from which it is abbreviated. With this sense, it forms nouns denoting vehicles powered by electricity instead of or as well as more traditional means, as in e-car, e-bicycle (or e-bike), and e-scooter. In order to keep the research more focused on the CF, rather than on the initial letter e found in irrelevant words such as every, each, end, etc., only the hyphenated form of the combinations was searched in corpora.
COCA: e-bike (72 occ./0.07), e-scooter (37 occ./0.03), e-rail (13 occ./0.01), e-street (11 occ./0.01), e-car (9 occ./0.00), e-boat (8 occ./0.00), e-train, e-power
NOW: e-bike (8,185 occ./1.49), e-scooter (7,634 occ./1.39), e-power (742 occ./0.13), e-bus (740 occ./0.13), e-car (703 occ./0.13), e-vehicle (481 occ./0.09), e-motor (229 occ./0.04), e-cycle (223 occ./0.04), e-street (186 occ./0.03), e-road, e-auto (173 occ./0.03), e-boat (162 occ./0.03), e-bicycle (148 occ./0.03), e-taxi (116 occ./0.02), e-truck (108 occ./0.02), e-biker (89 occ./0.02), e-jeep (77 occ./0.02), e-tricycle (62 occ./0.01), e-motorcycle (50 occ./0.01), e-cycling (35 occ./0.01), e-ferry, e-van (29 occ./0.01), e-moto, e-skate
Parisians are trying to do their part to make the air cleaner with e-scooters and cycling.
5.1.7 e-2
As a separate entry, the OED offers another ICF e-2, more recent [1988] and this time abbreviated from electronic. The position of the stress in e2-combinations may vary contextually, or in accordance with the general stress patterns of English. However, primary stress most commonly occurs on the first syllable (e.g. é-mail), since the function of the CF itself is predominantly contrastive (cf. snail mail).
Found in numerous formations from the late 1980s, as in e-book and e-fit, early formations are often preceded by corresponding compounds in electronic whose spelling is as two separate words (e.g. electronic book [1978] vs e-book [1988], electronic cash [1967] vs e-cash [1994]).
The ICF e-2 is indeed prefixed to nouns to indicate involvement in electronic media and telecommunications (esp. concerning the Internet), usually to distinguish objects or actions from their non-electronic counterparts.Footnote 2 In the late 1990s and early 2000s, formations starting in e-2 became very numerous and conspicuous in their frequency of use.
The three specific semantic areas that these formations cover are: (1) terms relating to the publication or exchange of information in an electronic format (e.g. e-journal, e-publication, e-text, e-edition, e-reader, e-zine); (2) terms relating to computers and the Internet, i.e. computer-mediated and internet-based (e.g. e-fit and other nonce words; cf. cyber- in § 5.1.3); and (3) terms relating to electronic financial transactions (e.g. e-bill, e-billing, e-currency, e-dollar, e-cash, e-commerce, e-money, e-ticket). The latter more specialised meaning has been recorded from 1992.
As for e-1, we focus on hyphenated combinations, but spelling may vary, besides part of speech: cf. the verb to e-mail converted from the respective noun.
COCA: e-mail (46,129 occ./42.39), e-book (4,139 occ./3.79), e-commerce (2,036 occ./1.87), e-mailed (1,828 occ./1.68), e-reader (901 occ./0.82), e-mailing (729 occ./0.66), e-cigarette (623 occ./0.57), e-learning (398 occ./0.37), e-verify (306 occ./0.28), e-business (207 occ./0.19), e-newsletter (193 occ./0.17), e-discovery (180 occ./0.17), e-waste (157 occ./0.14), e-trade (151 occ./0.14), e-ink (145 occ./0.13), e-file (136 occ./0.12), e-portfolio (135 occ./0.12), e-tailer, e-cig (122 occ./0.11), e-filing (119 occ./0.11), e-zine (115 occ./0.11), e-mailer (102 occ./0.09), e-class (97 occ./0.09), e-flat, e-edition (96 occ./0.08), e-journal (93 occ./0.08), e-voting (80 occ./0.07), e-rate (78 occ./0.07), e-government (74 occ./0.07), e-sport, e-resource (73 occ./0.07), e-market (71 occ./0.07), e-health (69 occ./0.06), e-card (67 occ./0.06), e-publishing (60 occ./0.06), e-ticket (58 occ./0.05), textbook (53 occ./0.05), e-form (50 occ./0.04), e-reading (46 occ./0.04), e-excuse (41 occ./0.04), e-value (39 occ./0.03), e-collar (38 occ./0.03), e-meter, e-course, e-liquid (36 occ./0.03), e-series (34 occ./0.03), e-type, e-text (32 occ./0.03), e-passport, e-shop, e-version, e-rep (26 occ./0.02), e-democracy, e-monograph, e-news (24 occ./0.02), e-format (23 occ./0.02), e-paper, e-pass, e-service, e-patient (22 occ./0.02), e-marketing, e-day, e-content (21 occ./0.02), e-money, e-publisher, e-system (20 occ./0.02), e-store (19 occ./0.02), e-magazine, e-list (18 occ./0.02), e-discussion (17 occ./0.01), e-letter, e-copy, e-group, e-screen (16 occ./0.01), e-world, e-wallet, e-gold, e-retailer (15 occ./0.01), e-mate, e-media, e-shopping (14 occ./0.01), e-teacher, e-payment, e-receipt, e-right, e-town (13 occ./0.01), e-word, e-tip, e-topia, e-pub (12 occ./0.01), e-mall, e-only, e-phone, e-cash, e-band, e-golf, e-credit (11 occ./0.01), e-check, e-publish, e-sale, e-visa (10 occ./0.01), e-vote, e-published, e-publication, e-query, e-project, e-tech, e-marketplace, e-privacy, e-tool, e-bomb, e-fund, e-filter , e-record (9 occ./0.01), e-friend, e-bulletin, e-print, e-bookstore, e-merchant (8 occ./0.01), e-resident, e-petition, e-runner, e-tail, e-line, e-accessibility, e-club, e-watch (7 occ./0.01), e-entertainment, e-bill, e-pad, e-museum, e-novel, e-library, e-log, e-machine, e-unit, e-signature, e-retailing, e-shopper, e-rating, e-retail (6 occ./0.01), e-readiness, e-toy, e-trading, e-training, e-stamp, e-tablet, e-law, e-coupon, e-communication, e-company, e-box, e-greeting, e-fit, e-factor, e-classroom (5 occ./0.01), e-voucher, e-zone, e-governance, e-inclusion, e-currency, e-contest, e-cookbook, e-banking, e-price, e-pharmacy, e-mobility, e-mailbox, e-mediator, e-message, e-ticketing, e-guide, e-science, e-gun, e-report, e-school, e-war, e-revolution (4 occ./0.01), e-research, e-race, e-room, e-title, e-thesis, e-test, e-tag, e-speak, e-sustainability, e-lending, e-note, e-music, e-pharmacist, e-participation, e-piracy, e-postcard, e-board, e-bank, e-address, e-auction, e-competence, e-brain, e-calendar, e-cell, e-key, e-gift (3 occ./0.01), e-welfare, e-volume, e-vision, e-visit, e-waver, e-writing, e-debate, e-design, e-diary, e-holiday, e-generation, e-information, e-insurance, e-interview, e-language, e-catalogue, e-certificate, e-campaign, e-booklet, e-community, e-citation, e-crime, e-criminal, e-courtroom, e-article, e-advertising, e-policy, e-parcel, e-party, e-newspaper, e-number, e-link, e-meeting, e-survey, e-storage, e-team, e-tour, e-tracking, e-review, e-reference, e-read (2 occ./0.01), e-revival, e-reward, e-revenue, e-reporting, e-recruit, e-recycling, e-product, e-progress, e-proof, e-quality, e-servicing, e-shopkeeper, e-solution, e-smoker, e-smoking, e-slave, e-signing
NOW: e-mail (195,331 occ./35.52), e-commerce (142,466 occ./25.90), e-edition (57,760 occ./10.50), e-cigarette (42,581 occ./7.74), e-book (22,229 occ./4.04), e-waste (12,496 occ./2.27), e-reader (11,475 occ./2.08), e-mailed (9,726 occ./1.77), e-learning (9,629 occ./1.75), e-sport (7,300 occ./1.33), e-wallet (7,000 occ./1.27), e-newsletter (6,732 occ./0.91), e-payment (6,357 occ./1.06), e-class (5,585 occ./1.01), e-governance (4,602 occ./0.84), e-auction (3,839 occ./0.70), e-way (3,791 occ./0.69), e-government (3,769 occ./0.69), e-tailer (3,629 occ./0.66), e-voting (2,784 occ./0.51), e-paper (2,747 occ./0.50), e-cig (2,450 occ./0.44), e-visa (2,231 occ./0.40), e-passport (2,221 occ./0.40), e-health (2,209 occ./0.40), e-money (2,185 occ./0.40), e-type (1,997 occ./0.36), e-mailing (1,845 occ./0.34), e-ink (1,821 occ./0.33), e-service (1,752 occ./0.32), e-business (1,670 occ./0.31), e-mobility (1,599 occ./0.29), e-ticket (1,597 occ./0.29), e-card (1,434 occ./0.26), e-newspaper (1,280 occ./0.23), e-retailer (1,225 occ./0.22), e-library (1,194 occ./0.22), e-pace (1,173 occ./0.21), e-banking (1,156 occ./0.21), e-discovery (1,149 occ./0.21), e-verify (1,090 occ./0.20), e-ticketing, e-dividend (1,082 occ./0.19), e-vehicle (1,015 occ./0.18), e-tag (900 occ./0.16), e-tendering (898 occ./0.16), e-pharmacy, e-store (842 occ./0.15), e-tailing (825 occ./0.15), e-golf (809 occ./0.15), e-petition (754 occ./0.14), e-signature (745 occ./0.13), e-fit (716 occ./0.13), e-transfer (714 occ./0.13), e-painter (707 occ./0.13), e-series (681 occ./0.12), e-retail (671 occ./0.12), e-marketplace (650 occ./0.12), e-reading (642 occ./0.12), e-invoicing (630 occ./0.11), e-trade (618 occ./0.11), e-gaming (613 occ./0.11), e-registration (581 occ./0.11), e-court (580 occ./0.11), e-voucher (545 occ./0.10), e-tail (538 occ./0.10), e-platform (529 occ./0.09), e-office (514 occ./0.09), e-portal (502 occ./0.09), e-game (484 occ./0.09), e-invoice (459 occ./0.08), e-magazine (435 occ./0.08), e-file (412 occ./0.08), e-transaction (389 occ./0.07), e-letter (383 occ./0.07), e-receipt (379 occ./0.07), e-form (365 occ./0.06), e-shop (363 occ./0.06), e-rate, e-news (350 occ./0.06), e-marketing (349 occ./0.06), e-SIM (347 occ./0.06), e-market (343 occ./0.06), e-zine (332 occ./0.06), e-textbook (331 occ./0.06), e-ID (317 occ./0.06), e-resource (315 occ./0.06), e-crime (307 occ./0.06), e-tourist (303 occ./0.06), e-assessment, e-pass (299 occ./0.06), e-solution (284 occ./0.05), e-gift (276 occ./0.05), e-billing (252 occ./0.05), e-shopping (248 occ./0.05), e-trading (244 occ./0.04), e-citizen (241 occ./0.04), e-recruitment, e-version (233 occ./0.04), e-school, e-TV (231 occ./0.04), e-journal (226 occ./0.04), e-publishing (225 occ./0.04), e-bill (223 occ./0.04), e-POS (219 occ./0.04), e-catering (216 occ./0.04), e-verification (215 occ./0.04), e-fan, e-fraud (201 occ./0.04), e-stamp (200 occ./0.04), e-stamping, e-grocery (196 occ./0.04), e-branch (193 occ./0.04), e-pay (191 occ./0.03), e-coupon, e-tax (188 occ./0.03), e-security, e-handbook (179 occ./0.03), e-auctioning (172 occ./0.03), e-certificate (169 occ./0.03), e-course (168 occ./0.03), e-publication, e-insurance (167 occ./0.03), e-day (163 occ./0.03), e-retailing (162 occ./0.03), e-GP (160 occ./0.03), e-box (158 occ./0.03), e-cell (152 occ./0.03), e-statement, e-application (149 occ./0.03), e-portfolio (146 occ./0.03), e-Parliament, e-collection (142 occ./0.03), e-racing (141 occ./0.03), e-transmission, e-value (139 occ./0.03), e-cash (127 occ./0.02), e-brand (125 occ./0.02), e-call (124 occ./0.02), e-channel (122 occ./0.02), e-league (121 occ./0.02), e-center/e-centre (120 occ./0.02), e-prescription (118 occ./0.02), e-system (117 occ./0.02), e-guide, e-communication (113 occ./0.02), e-poll (109 occ./0.02), e-healthcare, e-image (105 occ./0.02), e-document (101 occ./0.02), e-line (100 occ./0.02), e-boarding, e-check (99 occ./0.02), e-participation (98 occ./0.02), e-committee (96 occ./0.02), e-review (95 occ./0.02), e-media, e-currency (93 occ./0.02), e-lending (91 occ./0.02), e-classroom (87 occ./0.02), e-tourism, e-network, e-registered (86 occ./0.02), e-vote (84 occ./0.02), e-text (83 occ./0.01), e-delivery (81 occ./0.01), e-bulletin, e-club (80 occ./0.01), e-contract, e-zone (79 occ./0.01), e-world, e-training, e-board (78 occ./0.01), e-shopper (75 occ./0.01), e-chain (74 occ./0.01), e-audiobook, e-therapy, e-visit (73 occ./0.01), e-number, e-chat, e-cart, e-credit (72 occ./0.01), e-group, e-testing (71 occ./0.01), e-mailer, e-recycling (70 occ./0.01), e-syllabus, e-bookstore (69 occ./0.01), e-facility (68 occ./0.01), e-copy (67 occ./0.01), e-consultation, e-policing (65 occ./0.01), e-word, e-leaflet (64 occ./0.01), e-product, e-technology (62 occ./0.01), e-permit (61 occ./0.01), e-learn (59 occ./0.01), e-navigation (58 occ./0.01), e-sale (57 occ./0.01), e-planning (55 occ./0.01), e-travel (54 occ./0.01), e-challenging, e-boutique, e-team, e-tagging, e-post (53 occ./0.01), e-vision (52 occ./0.01), e-finance, e-smoking (51 occ./0.01), e-booking, e-brochure (50 occ./0.01), e-generation, e-purchasing, e-recording (49 occ./0.01), e-warranty, e-marking, e-monitoring, e-cigar, e-catalogue (48 occ./0.01), e-submission, e-tablet (44 occ./0.01), e-science, e-policy (43 occ./0.01), e-talk, e-reporting, e-cookbook, e-format (42 occ./0.01), e-gifting, e-teaching, e-watch (41 occ./0.01), e-device, e-charging (39 occ./0.01), e-identity (38 occ./0.01), e-working (37 occ./0.01), e-data (36 occ./0.01), e-mobile (34 occ./0.01), e-exam (32 occ./0.01), e-curriculum (29 occ./0.01), e-refund, e-research (28 occ./0.01), e-seller (27 occ./0.00), e-project (26 occ./0.00), e-chapter, e-bond, e-ballot, e-action, e-greeting, e-knowledge, e-entrepreneur, e-evidence, e-substitution, e-string, e-print, e-sealing, e-merchandising, e-map (25 occ./0.00), e-notice, e-patient, e-performance, e-administration, e-account, e-consult, e-control (24 occ./0.00), e-assembly
Then we lived through a decade of customer transition, and found out that e-commerce customers were not more valuable, not in the least bit.
5.1.8 econo-
The ICF econo-, attested from 1964 in the OED, is found in a small number of formations. It is found earliest in econometry/econometrics ‘the branch of statistical theory concerned with the analysis of economic phenomena’ and related words, and in econobox, referring to ‘an economy-sized box of something’ or ‘a nondescript economical car’.
As a CF, it can be shortened either from economic and prefixed to adjectives with the sense ‘economic and —’ (e.g. econo-political), or from economy and added to nominal bases. In the latter case, it can form nouns denoting ‘things which are economical (or promote economy), inexpensive, or cheap’ (e.g. econocar), or nouns denoting ‘things or persons of a type involved in or associated with economics’ (e.g. econo-politics).
COCA: econometric (372 occ./0.34), econo(-)metrics (225 occ./0.21), econoline (69 occ./0.06), econo(-)box (46 occ./0.02), econometrician (26 occ./0.02), economonitor (22 occ./0.02), economart, econo(-)car (13 occ./0.01), econophysics, econometrically (12 occ./0.01), econolink (11 occ./0.01), econophysicist (7 occ./0.01), economan (4 occ./0.00), econoscope, econobroker, econo-speak, econo(-)class, econo-technical (3 occ./0.00), econo-babble, econoday, econosphere (2 occ./0.00), econopack, econoperformance, economode, econometrical, econometric-model-based, econometer, economagical, econography, econocratic, econocentric, econocide, econo-ladder, econo-cart, econo-military, econo-collapse, econo-size, econoblogging, econoblogosphere, econo-thermo-dynamic
NOW: econometric (1,170 occ./0.21), econometrics (873 occ./0.16), econoline (265 occ./0.05), econo(-)box (180 occ./0.03), econoday (71 occ./0.01), econometrician (64 occ./0.01), econo(-)car (22 occ./0.00), econometer (21 occ./0.00), econocracy, econocrat, econo(-)speak (19 occ./0.00), econo-political (18 occ./0.00), econophysics (15 occ./0.00), econowife (14 occ./0.00), econoprint, econo-growth (8 occ./0.00), econo(-)centric (7 occ./0.00), econolight, economonitor, econometrist (6 occ./0.00), econofood (5 occ./0.00), econophysicist, econopeople, econometrical, econoblogosphere, econo-version, econocide (4 occ./0.00), econo-social, econo-philosophical, econo-military
A death on a racetrack mid-race is the most exciting, honorable death any econobox can dream of.
5.1.9 femto-
The ICF femto- is abbreviated from Danish femten ‘fifteen’, with an -o- connective. Attested from 1963, it is prefixed to the name of a unit of measurement to denote ‘a factor of 10−15 (one thousand-million-millionth)’, as in femtoampere, femtogram, or femtosecond.
Since 1978, it has also been used to denote dimensions of the order of 1 to 100 femtometres, as in the nonce words femtoplankton, femtouniverse, etc.
COCA: femto(-)second (148 occ./0.14), femtocell (25 occ./0.02), femtobarn (10 occ./0.01), femtochemistry (9 occ./0.01), femtometer (6 occ./0.00), femtocosm, femtojoule, femtolaser, femtosecond-long, femtomolar (2 occ./0.00), femtosecond-pulse, femtosecond-laser-based, femtosensor, femtosource, femtotechnology, femtowatt, femtogram, femto-electron, femto-satellite
NOW: femto(-)second (1,036 occ./0.19), femto(-)cell (551 occ./0.10), femtometer/femtometre (41 occ./0.00), femto(-)molar (24 occ./0.00), femtoliter (23 occ./0.00), femtojet (17 occ./0.00), femto(-)photography (14 occ./0.00), femtochemistry, femtogram (13 occ./0.00), femtomole (10 occ./0.00), femtojoule (9 occ./0.00), femto(-)satellite (7 occ./0.00), femtowatt, femtoring (6 occ./0.00), femtobarn (5 occ./0.00), femtotechnology, femtosecond-laser, femtoprojector, femtosecond-assisted (4 occ./0.00), femtopower, femtonewton, femtolaser, femtosecond-long, femtosecond-scale, femto(-)tesla, femto(-)scale, femto(-)lasik (3 occ./0.00), femtosecond-pulsed, femtosecond-range, femtosecond-nanometric, femtonewton-scale, femtomolar-level, femtorisk, femto-engine, femtolitre, femto-amp, femto-camera, femtoforum, femtometer-scale (2 occ./0.00), femtolitre-sized, femtomagnetism, femtoforum-sponsored, femtofluid, femtography, femtoelectronvolt, femtofarad, femtoclock, femtochemical, femto-ampere, femto-nano, femto-newton-meter, femto-entrail, femtocall, femto-powered, femtosecond-class, femtosecond-fast, femtoscience, femtoscope, femtoscopic, femtometrics, femtotera, femtosecond-pulse, femtosecond-transient
The silica sample with three air/silica interfaces for topography was manufactured by the femtosecond laser ablation method.
5.1.10 lamino-
The ICF lamino- comes from the abbreviation of the adjective laminal ‘produced by the blade of the tongue’, with an additional -o-. The first attested examples include lamino-palatal [1966] and lamino-dental [1968].
COCA: laminoplasty (30 occ./0.03), laminotomy
NOW: laminography (47 occ./0.01), laminotomy (9 occ./0.00), laminopathy (8 occ./0.00), laminoplasty
A total of 276 patients receiving posterior open-door laminoplasty for cervical spinal stenotic myelopathy were studied.
5.1.11 Luso-
The ICF Luso- is the shortening of Lusitania ‘Portugal’, with an additional -o- connective. Attested from 1951, it is added to adjectives to indicate ‘Portuguese, of Portugal’, as in Luso-Brazilian or Luso-Spanish.
COCA: Lusophone (13 occ./0.01), Luso-Brazilian (7 occ./0.01), Luso-Romance (5 occ./0.00), Luso(-)tropicalism (4 occ./0.00), Luso(-)tropical (3 occ./0.00), Luso-African, Luso-American, Luso-Latin
NOW: Lusophone (275 occ./0.05), Luso-Indian (15 occ./0.00), Lusophonic, Luso-American (5 occ./0.00), Lusophony, Luso-African (4 occ./0.00), Luso-Brazilian, Luso-Luxembourg (3 occ./0.00), Lusophile, Lusophonia, Lusophonian, Lusophone-version, Lusotropicalism, Lusotropicalist, Luso-Australian, Luso-Brit, Luso-British, Luso-South
Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian authors or coauthors, including those living in Europe and North America, submitted 40 percent of all 1999–2000 submissions, as compared with 36 percent the previous year and 41 percent the year before that.
5.1.12 nega-
Abbreviated from negative, nega- was first attested in 1973. It is used to form the names of ‘negative counterparts of things (chiefly units of measurement)’ (e.g. negawatt), now especially in the context of energy (or other resources) saved as a result of conservation measures.
COCA: negawatt (12 occ./0.01), negabarrel, nega-bobbing, nega-verse, nega-captain, negabot, negawatthour (2 occ./0.00), nega-carbon, nega-oil, negacoal, Negadelphia, negaholism, neganetwork, negatree, negatrip
NOW: negawatt (97 occ./0.01), nega-band (11 occ./0.00), negaverse, negaholism (3 occ./0.00), negastar, negatiger (2 occ./0.00), Nega-Trump, nega-Americanism, nega-cancer, nega-input, negaholic
The supply of negawatts is alleged to be between 22 and 64 percent of current electricity consumption.
5.1.13 petro-1
The ICF petro-1, shortened from petroleum,Footnote 3 first occurred in the mid-twentieth century in petrochemical [1942] and petrochemistry [1942],Footnote 4 although petromax (from G. Petromax) [1929] ‘a proprietary name for a type of vaporised paraffin pressure lamp’ and Petro-Forge [1964] ‘a kind of forging machine powered by a petrol engine’ also belong here. As an abbreviated form, it obtains terms relating to petroleum, especially with reference to the political and economic power of oil-producing countries, as in petropolitics, petro-power, petro-resources, and petro-wealth (cf. the secreted form in § 6.1.11).
COCA: petro(-)chemical (adj. and n, 813 occ./0.75), petro-state (47 occ./0.03), petrology (17 occ./0.02), petrologist (14 occ./0.02), petro(-)politics (8 occ./0.01), petrological, petrographic (6 occ./0.01), petrography, petromania, petro(-)diesel, petro(-)chem (5 occ./0.00), petro-fuel, Petromax, petroglobal, petrocalcic, petro-based, petro-search (4 occ./0.00), petro-revenue, petroenergy, petrogenesis (3 occ./0.00), petrologistics, petrograph, petroculture, petroconsultant, petrochemistry, petro-fertilizer, petro-arrogance, petro-superpower, petro(-)power, petro-nationalism, petro(-)geologist, petro-hunt (2 occ./0.00), petro-Islam, petro-junky, petro-nation, petro-military, petro-oil, petro-oligarch, petro-organic, petro-plastic, petro-regime, petro-supplier, petro-terrorist, petro-autocracy, petro-addicted, petro-boom, petro-cultist, petro-developmental, petro-hegemony, petro-fueled, petro-domination, petro-facility, petro-wealth, petrocracy, petrogenetic, petrogovernment, petrologic, petroscience, petropress, petroprotein, petropolitical, petroscape, petroresources, petrophobia, petrophysical
NOW: petro(-)chemical (adj. and n, 27,659 occ./5.03), petro(-)state (559 occ./0.10), petro(-)chem (483 occ./0.09), petro(-)gas (313 occ./0.06), petrotech (251 occ./0.05), petro(-)energy (168 occ./0.03), petro(-)product (150 occ./0.03), petrographic, petrophysical, petro-victory (126 occ./0.02), petroshare (120 occ./0.02), petro(-)logistics (92 occ./0.02), petrological (80 occ./0.01), petroline (78 occ./0.01), petroresources (75 occ./0.01), petro-based (66 occ./0.01), petrochemical-based (52 occ./0.01), petro(-)chemistry (50 occ./0.01), petro(-)technical (46 occ./0.01), petro-economy (43 occ./0.01), petro(-)culture (38 occ./0.01), petro-lithium, petroworth (33 occ./0.01), petro-can (32 occ./0.01), petro(-)diesel (30 occ./0.00), petro(-)monarchy (24 occ./0.00), petroinvestment (21 occ./0.00), petro-nation, petro-power (19 occ./0.00), petro-wealth, petro-fuel (17 occ./0.00), petro-piracy (16 occ./0.00), petro(-)politics (15 occ./0.00), petro-economist, petrochemical-related, petrophysics (14 occ./0.00), petro(-)physicist (12 occ./0.00), petrographical (11 occ./0.00), petrodata, petrologist, petrotrade (10 occ./0.00), petro(-)imperialism, petro-diplomacy (9 occ./0.00), petro(-)carbon, petro-addition (8 occ./0.00), petroglobe, petro-dependent, petro-industrial, petro-rich, petro-developmental, petro-revenue, petro-boom, petro-tax, petrocrat (6 occ./0.00), petroholic, petro-dictator, petro-electric (5 occ./0.00), petro-goods, petro-fueled, petro-kingdom, petro-patriot, petro-convenience, petro-centric, petroforce, petrochemically, petrostrategy (4 occ./0.00), petrochemicals-based, petrochemical-producing, petro-capitalism, petro-business, petro-chemist, petro-farming, petro-patriotism, petro-oil, petro-powered, petro-money, petro-elite, petrochallenge, petro-refinery, petro-province, petro-regime, petro-tyranny
The embargo covered imports of crude oil, petroleum products and petrochemical products.
5.1.14 porta-
The CF porta-, shortened from the adjective portable, apparently appeared earliest in portapak [1951] ‘a portable system comprising a video camera and recording equipment’. It is used to form the (often proprietary) names of various movable or portable versions of manufactured objects, devices, structures, etc., as specified by the second element: e.g. portacam, porta-crib, Porta-John (from slang john ‘a toilet, lavatory’), porta-kit, porta-office, Porta-Phone, porta-printer, porta-screen, etc.
COCA: porta-potty (130 occ./0.12), Porta(-)John (30 occ./0.02), portaball (25 occ./0.02), porta-chef (7 occ./0.01), portacabin/portakabin (6 occ./0.00), porta-cell, porta-crib, porta-toilet, Porta-Johnny (3 occ./0.00), porta-posse, portal-gun (2 occ./0.00), portacomp, portastudio, portaphone, portapotter, porta-pot, porta-trench, porta-basket
NOW: portakabin/porta(-)cabin (739 occ./0.13), porta(-)potty/porta-pottie (624 occ./0.10), porta(-)com (319 occ./0.05), portafilter (83 occ./0.01), Porta-John (44 occ./0.00), porta-loo (36 occ./0.00), portastudio (26 occ./0.00), portapack (13 occ./0.00), porta-party (11 occ./0.00), porta-bowl (9 occ./0.00), porta-tank (6 occ./0.00), portagrid, porta-toilet, portacabin-style/portakabin-style (4 occ./0.00), portatank, portacabin-type/portakabin-type, porta(-)crib (3 occ./0.00), portascanner, porta-store (2 occ./0.00), portacom-style, portacom-type, portabook, portacabin-like, portacell, porta-bathroom, porta-box, porta-filter, porta-pot, porta-puppet, porta-screen, portawall, portapack, portaphone, portapool, portaportal
OK, I got the changing pad and the portable high chair, the porta-crib, bibs, Thomas the Tank Engine cereal bowls.
5.1.15 syn-
The CF syn-, abbreviating synthetic, has been used from 1971 to form words denoting synthetic products, as in syncrude ‘a synthetic product made from coal in imitation of crude oil’, synfuel, syngas, synjet, synoil, and synroc. As such, it differs from the prefix syn-, a Latinised form of Greek συν- ‘together’ (e.g. synthesis, synergy), and generally carries stress.
COCA: syngas (110 occ./0.10), syncrude (59 occ./0.05), syn(-)fuel (31 occ./0.02), syndiesel (4 occ./0.00), synsilk, synskin
NOW: syncrude (2,639 occ./0.48), syngas (888 occ./0.16), synfuel (270 occ./0.05), synlawn (43 occ./0.01), synroc (17 occ./0.00), syn-turf (10 occ./0.00), syn-free
The plant would then burn the syngas in a turbine, strip the carbon dioxide (CO2) from the power plant’s flue, and send that CO2 through a pipeline to an oilfield where it would be used for enhanced oil recovery.
5.1.16 -bot1
The CF -bot1 (from robot) is found in a number of formations from about 1966 onwards. The new words were originally blends involving robot (e.g. mobot from mobile and robot), but later -bot1 was used to form nouns denoting ‘a type of robot or automated device’ or, in extended (metaphorical) use, to refer to ‘a person regarded as an automaton’, as in fembot [1976] ‘a robot resembling a woman in appearance’ and nanobot [1989] ‘a nano-robot’ (cf. its specialised meaning in information technology, § 6.1.16).
COCA: autobot (66 occ./0.06), fembot (63 occ./0.06), nanobot (21 occ./0.02), microbot (10 occ./0.01), guardbot, waterbot, sexbot, repairbot (9 occ./0.01), medbot, minibot, smartbot, aerobot (8 occ./0.01), chatbot (7 occ./0.01), gardenbot (6 occ./0.01), home(-)bot (5 occ./0.00), doorbot (4 occ./0.00), janitorbot, hydrobot, digibot, secbot, salesbot, Tradebot (3 occ./0.00), teacherbot, twitterbot, newsbot, Cosmobot (2 occ./0.00), girlbot, agrobot, brainbot, megabot, Promobot, screenbot, securitybot, servicebot, scanbot
NOW: chat(-)bot (7,574 occ./1.37), auto(-)bot (795 occ./0.14), human(-)bot (251 occ./0.05), mobot (248 occ./0.05), microbot (187 occ./0.03), fem(-)bot (160 occ./0.03), sex(-)bot (150 occ./0.02), Promobot (114 occ./0.02), nano(-)bot (90 occ./0.02), doorbot (70 occ./0.01), scanbot (46 occ./0.01), voice(-)bot (43 occ./0.01), omnibot (37 occ./0.01), lampbot (26 occ./0.00), battlebot (23 occ./0.00), spiderbot, guardbot (21 occ./0.00), warbot (15 occ./0.00), manbot, newsbot, airbot, aquabot (13 occ./0.00), mini-bot (12 occ./0.00), Intellibot (11 occ./0.00), babybot (9 occ./0.00), lawnbot, Obamabot (8 occ./0.00), workbot, FitBot, chocobot, aim-bot, nursebot, video-bot (6 occ./0.00), smartbot, mother-bot, mega-bot, printbot, camerabot, drone-bot, fishbot, cyber-bot (5 occ./0.00), coachbot
Some abusers would use a fembot for practice.
5.1.17 -jack
The FCF -jack is obtained by shortening the verb hijack and found earliest in skyjack [1961] ‘to hijack (an aircraft, esp. a passenger plane)’ (cf. also nearly simultaneous -jacker in carjacker and -jacking in carjacking). As an abbreviated form, -jack obtains nouns and verbs (often ad hoc formations) referring to ‘the action of taking away or taking over another’s property, esp. a vehicle in transit, without permission, or performing some comparable irregular activity’ (e.g. carjack, ship-jack, truckjack, yachtjack). In the new digital world it can also refer to ‘the action of gaining unauthorised control of another’s computer system, network, social media account’ (e.g. page-jack, photo-jack, Twitter-jack). In both these senses, the derived CFs -jacker and -jacking also exist. The former obtains agent nouns (sometimes nonce formations) corresponding to verbs referring to ‘the action of taking away another’s property’, such as skyjacker, carjacker, shipjacker, and cyberjacker, while the latter refers to the abstract ‘action of taking away or over another’s property’ (e.g. skyjacking, carjacking, phone-jacking, like-jacking). My analysis focuses on the verb.
COCA: car(-)jack (96 occ./0.09), skyjack (2 occ./0.00), bikejack, shipjack, sightjack
NOW: car(-)jack (513 occ./0.10), skyjack (487 occ./0.09), cyber-jack (6 occ./0.00), auto-jack (5 occ./0.00), cart-jack (2 occ./0.00), sight-jack, phone-jack
‘Officers also learned that the suspects were seen attempting to carjack a vehicle in the area,’ police said.
5.1.18 -lect
Attested in the OED from 1965, the abbreviated CF -lect (from dialect) is a terminal element used to designate a regional or social variety within a language, as in idiolect [1948] ‘the linguistic system of one person, differing in some details from that of all other speakers of the same dialect or language’. It is also used in forming a number of technical terms in linguistics, as in acrolect, basilect, isolect, sociolect, etc. Hence, it has been converted to a noun and used to refer to ‘a social variety of a language or dialect’.
COCA: idiolect (21 occ./0.02), sociolect (11 occ./0.01), hyperlect
NOW: idiolect (58 occ./0.01), sociolect (11 occ./0.00), interlect, Afrolect (6 occ./0.00), multilect (5 occ./0.00), ethnolect (3 occ./0.00), hyperlect, basilect, socialect (2 occ./0.00), topolect
I think there are useful parallels, especially if you think of each speaker’s idiolect as an individual ‘organism’.
5.1.19 -olol
The FCF -olol (from propranolol) is found in formations from the late 1960s onwards. It is typical of pharmacology, where it is used to form the names of ‘beta-adrenoceptor blocking drugs derived from propranolol or having a similar molecular structure’ (e.g. acebutolol ‘a beta blocker which is partially selective for cardiac beta receptors, used in the treatment of hypertension, angina, and arrhythmia’).
COCA: nadolol (51 occ./0.05), atenolol (21 occ./0.02), meto(-)prolol (21 occ./0.02), bisoprolol, stanozolol (17 occ./0.02), nebivolol (6 occ./0.01), timolol (5 occ./0.00), metabolol, bisabolol (2 occ./0.00), penbutolol, pindolol, practolol
NOW: metoprolol (234 occ./0.04), atenolol (128 occ./0.02), bisoprolol (55 occ./0.01), bisabolol (39 occ./0.01), nadolol (33 occ./0.01), pindolol (22 occ./0.00), landiolol (20 occ./0.00), levobunolol (19 occ./0.00), nebivolol, betaxolol (15 occ./0.00), carazolol (14 occ./0.00), celiprolol (13 occ./0.00), bucindolol, metipranolol (4 occ./0.00), penbutolol (2 occ./0.00), talinolol, nandolol
We aimed to test the effectiveness of isosorbide mononitrate as an adjunct to the b-blocker nadolol in the prophylaxis of first variceal bleeding in these patients.
5.1.20 -onium
In particle physics, -onium represents the abbreviation of positronium. Since 1987, it has been used to form the names of bound states of a particle and its antiparticle, as in nucleonium, charmonium, toponium. This is not to be overlapped with the homonymous antecedent form, occurring in chemistry from 1858 in carbonium, hydrazonium, nitronium, phosphonium, which instead comes from ammonium and forms the names of ‘complex cations that contain a more or less electronegative central atom’.
COCA: charmonium
NOW: charmonium (8 occ./0.00), quarkonium
The ultimate explanation was that the particle was a bound state of a charm - anti-charm quark pair, dubbed ‘charmonium’, analogous to the bound state positronium of an e + e - pair.
5.1.21 -tainment
The recent FCF -tainment, attested in the OED from 1990, is abbreviated from entertainment. It is found in a small number of English formations, earliest in docutainment [1978] ‘a film which includes documentary materials, and seeks both to inform and entertain’, and later also in infotainment [1980] ‘broadcast material which seeks to inform and entertain simultaneously’, edutainment [1983] ‘informative entertainment’, and irritainment [1993] ‘irritating entertainment’. It is also attested in nonce words, especially nouns denoting ‘genres of broadcasting, journalism, etc., in which entertainment is combined with aspects of the genre indicated by the first element’, some of which are found in corpora.
COCA: info(-)tainment (267 occ./0.24), edu(-)tainment (81 occ./0.08), eatertainment (11 occ./0.01), agri(-)tainment (8 occ./0.01), technotainment (7 occ./0.01), communitainment (3 occ./0.00), shop-o-tainment, disinfotainment, charitainment, advertainment, aesthetainment, inter(-)tainment (2 occ./0.00), auto-infotainment, autotainment, Dinotainment, infomerciatainment, exer-tainment, fash-tainment, nettainment, newsertainment, newsy-tainment, merchantainment, kid-tertainment, retail(-)tainment, psychotainment, shoppertainment, shoptainment
NOW: info(-)tainment (20,077 occ./3.65), edu(-)tainment (2,276 occ./0.42), intertainment (123 occ./0.02), retail(-)tainment (117 occ./0.02), shoppertainment (94 occ./0.02), sportainment (62 occ./0.01), cricketainment (60 occ./0.01), infortainment (32 occ./0.01), agri(-)tainment (26 occ./0.00), culturaltainment (24 occ./0.00), advertainment (20 occ./0.00), architainment (18 occ./0.00), queuetainment, traveltainment, home(-)tainment, agrotainment (11 occ./0.00), politainment, digitainment (10 occ./0.00), militainment (9 occ./0.00), sport-tainment, motor(-)tainment, docu(-)tainment (8 occ./0.00), communitainment, funtertainment, merchantainment (6 occ./0.00), emotainment, diplotainment, cricket-tainment, wintertainment, transportainment, socialtainment (5 occ./0.00), retrotainment, datatainment, murdertainment, mediatainment, fun(-)tainment, news(-)tainment, torture(-)tainment (4 occ./0.00), eco-tainment, celebretainment, beautytainment, artainment, tech-tainment, soccertainment (3 occ./0.00), shoptainment, sleep-tainment, suppertainment, spytainment, phototainment, retro-tainment, rugbytainment, touritainment, art-tainment, anthropo-tainment, audiotainment, cruisertainment, dinnertainment, exploitainment, filmtainment, eater-tainment, garden-tainment, paintertainment, nature-tainment (2 occ./0.00), lunar-tainment, lawyer-tainment, irony-tainment, irritainment, movietainment, monstertainment, food-tainment, horrortainment, golf-o-tainment, hockeytainment, historytainment, encyclotainment, electiontainment, fashiontainment
In general, luxury brands struggled in the 2020 study in part due to problems with their infotainment systems.
5.1.22 -ylidene
The CF -ylidene, from ethylidene, earliest attested in 1971, is used in chemistry as an adaptation of a French chemical name. It is used to form the names of divalent radicals in which both valencies derive from the same atom, as in benzylidene. It replaces the -idine suffix when the name of the parent compound does not end in -yl (cf. alkylidene, propylidene, etc.).
COCA: 4-methylbenzylidene, o-chlorobenzylidene
NOW: 2-chlorobenzylidene, o-chlorobenzylidene (8 occ./0.00), chlorobenzylidene (5 occ./0.00), cyclopentylidene, 4-methylbenzylidene (4 occ./0.00), retinylidene (3 occ./0.00), nitrobenzylidene (2 occ./0.00), benzylidene, 2-xhlorobenzylidene
Merck sought approval for 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, while BASF requested approval for octyl triazone.
The productivity of abbreviated CFs is demonstrated by the huge number of words obtained by their addition to various bases. Their productivity is also confirmed in terms of profitability to produce new words, most of which are hapaxes in corpora. The two corpora explored even display different nonce formations, as a further confirmation of the occasional character of many new coinages.
Abbreviated CFs may also attach to other CFs. For instance, the ICF cyber- forms nouns by combining with neoclassical forms (cyberphobia), as well as with abbreviated (cyberware) and secreted forms (cyberthon, cyberscape, cybergate, cyberspeak), and even with splinters (cyberzine, see -zine in § 7.1.13). The same is true for e-2 (e-speak, e-zine) and dino- (Dinosphere, dinoburger). This corroborates the claim that CFs behave differently from affixes, which cannot combine with one another, and are closer to compound constituents from this viewpoint (see criterion (c) Combinability with bound/free morphs/one another in Table 2.1, § 2.4.3).
Finally, abbreviated CFs are productive in terms of lexicalisation, in that words originating from their combination with bound or free morphemes become bases for word-formation rules themselves, both derivations (e.g. cyber-friend giving cyber-friend-ly and cyber-friend-ship) and back-formations (e.g. the verb e-learn is back-formed from e-learning and e-read from e-reader, the verb cyber-stalk is back-derived from cyber-stalking). In addition, the verb e-speak has been formed by analogy with e-read and e-learn, which functioned as models for the surface (local) analogy (Mattiello Reference Mattiello2017). A more careful quantitative examination of corpus-derived data and frequency lists is now needed to verify the actual morphological productivity of the abbreviated CFs explored thus far.
5.2 Morphological Productivity of Abbreviated Combining Forms
As for neoclassical CFs, the morphological productivity of abbreviated CFs is measured by counting, for each one, the type frequency, the ratio of the number of types to the number of tokens, and the ratio of the number of hapax legomena to the number of tokens in COCA and NOW.
On some occasions the extremely high type and token frequencies of the abbreviated CFs made it impossible to identify hapax legomena. Thus, while for specialised forms such as the ICFs lamino- and syn- and the FCFs -onium and -ylidene, the results for hapaxes are null, for e-2 the number of tokens for each type still continues to be considerable rather than corresponding to 1. This explains the result 0 in the last column representing its HTR. The figures in Table 5.1 are now translated into graphical representations, starting with a bar chart in Figure 5.1, which shows the type frequency in COCA and NOW.
Table 5.1 Frequency lists of abbreviated combining forms in COCA and NOW
| Position | Combining form | Type frequency | Type/token ratio | Hapax legomena/token ratio | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COCA | NOW | COCA | NOW | COCA | NOW | ||
| Initial | atto- | 4 | 17 | 0.089 | 0.034 | 0.067 | 0.008 |
| Brit-1 | 18 | 25 | 0.391 | 0.053 | 0.261 | 0.349 | |
| cyber- | 399 | 267 | 0.045 | 0.031 | 0.013 | 0.007 | |
| digi-1 | 20 | 12 | 0.096 | 0.030 | 0.024 | 0.048 | |
| dino- | 51 | 115 | 0.299 | 0.135 | 0.181 | 0.062 | |
| e-1 | 8 | 24 | 0.050 | 0.001 | 0 | 0 | |
| e-2 | 262 | 264 | 0.004 | 0.0004 | 0.0003 | 0 | |
| econo- | 40 | 30 | 0.046 | 0.010 | 0.023 | 0.030 | |
| femto- | 19 | 64 | 0.087 | 0.034 | 0.041 | 0.012 | |
| lamino- | 2 | 6 | 0.064 | 0.086 | 0.032 | 0 | |
| Luso- | 8 | 18 | 0.228 | 0.055 | 0.086 | 0.031 | |
| nega- | 15 | 11 | 0.469 | 0.090 | 0.25 | 0.040 | |
| petro-1 | 63 | 82 | 0.061 | 0.002 | 0.032 | 0 | |
| porta- | 19 | 36 | 0.086 | 0.018 | 0.032 | 0.008 | |
| syn- | 6 | 7 | 0.029 | 0.002 | 0.010 | 0 | |
| Final | -bot1 | 35 | 42 | 0.123 | 0.004 | 0.031 | 0.016 |
| -jack | 5 | 7 | 0.050 | 0.007 | 0.030 | 0.002 | |
| -lect | 3 | 10 | 0.090 | 0.104 | 0.030 | 0.010 | |
| -olol | 12 | 18 | 0.082 | 0.029 | 0.021 | 0.005 | |
| -onium | 1 | 2 | 0.167 | 0.222 | 0 | 0.111 | |
| -tainment | 27 | 77 | 0.067 | 0.003 | 0.037 | 0.0006 | |
| -ylidene | 2 | 9 | 0.5 | 0.25 | 0 | 0.055 | |
Figure 5.1 Type frequency of abbreviated combining forms in COCA and NOW
The type frequency of the abbreviated CFs analysed represented in Figure 5.1 corresponds to their RP. In other words, type frequency shows how productive each CF is in terms of lexical items that contain the CF in COCA and NOW. Since the two corpora selected have specific sections that are more academic and specialised in character, sector-specific CFs, such as petro-1 or econo- in economics, -olol in pharmacology, e-1 in the electricity field, and -lect in linguistics are represented in their specialised use. Yet, the most profitable abbreviated CFs are certainly in the technological domain, i.e. cyber- and e-2, whose expansion is related to the improvement of high-tech sectors and the development of new web-based media. By contrast, digi-1 appears not to be as productive as e-2, in spite of its comparable uses. Other rather productive CFs are dino-, whose use is not only related to palaeontology or geology but also to entertainment (e.g. dinomania, Dinoland), and -tainment, with the various creative forms of amusement that are rapidly spreading over TV and novel media (e.g. fun-tainment, sport-tainment). Very low productivity is shown by the ICFs atto-, lamino-, and syn-, and the FCFs -jack, -onium, and -ylidene.
Figure 5.2 shows a graph reporting the TTR of the same CFs in COCA and NOW.
Figure 5.2 Type/token ratio of abbreviated combining forms in COCA and NOW
The TTR in COCA is especially high for the ICFs nega-, Brit-1, dino-, and Luso-, and for the FCF -ylidene, while there is a very low lexical diversity for e-1, e-2, and syn-. In NOW, the TTR is high for econo-, petro-1, -bot1, -jack, and -tainment, but less so for atto-, cyber-, digi-1, -porta, and -olol. By contrast, the token frequency of the CF combinations in the two corpora explored is very high for e-2 (62,061 occ. in COCA/639,728 occ. in NOW), petro-1 (1,025/31,263), -tainment (404/23,177), e-1 (160/20,422), and -bot1 (285/10,055), while it is very low for -onium (6/9) and -ylidene (4/36). These figures suggest that there is much more variety in -ylidene formations, despite the low number of tokens, than in e-2, despite the extremely high number of tokens. In other words, results for the number of tokens are in evident contradiction with the TTR, which measures tokens in relation to types. We cannot deny that there is lexical variety in e-2 or in cyber-formations, which have both produced long lists of corpus data. Overall, the TTR is higher in COCA than in NOW due to the size difference between the two corpora.
Figure 5.3 finally represents data concerning the EP of the above CFs, measured by the HTR.
Figure 5.3 Hapax legomena/token ratio of abbreviated combining forms in COCA and NOW
The number of hapax legomena is indicative of the profitability of CFs and specifically shows how novel words occurring only once are found in corpora and potentially arise in the lexicon at large. For some abbreviated CFs, the number of hapaxes is negligible (e.g. lamino-, syn-, atto-, -lect, -jack, -olol, -onium, -ylidene), whereas for others it is considerable, with no great homogeneity between the two corpora: e.g. Brit-1 (12 occ. of hapaxes in COCA/165 in NOW), cyber- (113/58), dino- (31/53), and -bot1 (9/166). In general, the HTR is higher in COCA than in NOW, and this is again explained by the significant number of tokens found in the latter corpus.
However, a clarification of HTR is in order here. Lamino- and syn- display no hapaxes in NOW, whereas -onium and -ylidene do not display words occurring only once in COCA; hence, their results for hapaxes are, as already said, null. The state for e-1 and e-2 is different: these two CFs are not used occasionally but with a certain stability. Hence, their tokens always have more than just one occurrence.
Moreover, hapaxes are often the result of humorous and amusing formations that are coined on the spot but do not survive, nor become institutionalised. This is why CFs such as Brit-1, dino-, or nega- produce many occasionalisms: e.g. Brit-face, dino-obsessed, and Nega-Trump have a clear hilarious flavour. By contrast, the CFs of specialised sectors tend to form words that seem to have a more stable nature: e.g. cyber-finance, femtogram, petroresources, synsilk, and hyperlect are not occasionalisms coined for humorous or textual reasons, despite their unique occurrence in one of the two corpora analysed. Moreover, due to the different sizes of COCA and NOW, hapaxes were easier to find in COCA than in NOW. This is why, for some CFs, I had to consider more results than the 1,000 upper limit of retrieval established to identify and select hapaxes. In spite of this, their identification was not always possible.
5.3 Diachronic Analysis of Abbreviated Combining Forms
The diachronic investigation of CF combinations in GBC (1950–2019) can finally show the evolution of these forms and their formatives. In particular, from a diachronic perspective, I expect abbreviated CFs to behave differently from neoclassical CFs. Since abbreviated CFs do not have a neoclassical origin but mostly originate from blending, I assume a sharp rise in their use in more recent years, when they have become established as affix-like forms rather than mere word parts used in blends. Using Google Books Ngram Viewer, in this section we explore the frequency changes of the most numerous abbreviated CFs resulting from COCA and NOW queries.
Figure 5.4 shows the results for two atto-combinations in GBC.
Figure 5.4 Frequency change of atto-combinations in GBC
Attosecond and attogram (hyphenated spellings not being available) behave very differently from each other: while the former has rapidly increased in use since the beginning of the twenty-first century, with a peak from 2007 but still frequently used, the latter was and continues to be used infrequently.
Figure 5.5 compares two Brit1-combinations, namely Britcom and Britspeak.
Figure 5.5 Frequency change of Brit1-combinations in GBC
It is interesting to observe how the behaviour of Britcom and Britspeak differs but shows an equal steady trend in recent times. Britcom was especially frequent in the past, probably due to the success of this TV genre in the early years (1950s), but started to decrease until 1975, when it was reused and has levelled off until today. By contrast, for Britspeak, stressing a particular way of speaking and accent that are typical of the British, we can observe a slight rise from 1985, but no considerable changes in either direction.
Figure 5.6 focuses on the two cyber-combinations which were the most frequent in both COCA and NOW.
Figure 5.6 Frequency change of cyber-combinations in GBC
The graph in Figure 5.6 shows trends in the two n-grams of cyberspace and cybersecurity. The two nouns are comparable with atto-formations, with cyberspace being much more used than cybersecurity. The former reached a peak in 2000, and seems to have slightly decreased since then, while cybersecurity started to rise in 1997, but has reached its highest level (joining cyberspace) in 2019, as the graph shows.
Figure 5.7 represents changes of the only digi1-formation found in GBC.
Figure 5.7 Frequency change of a digi1-combination in GBC
Probably due to the technological field to which they belong, all the other digi1-combinations found in COCA and NOW are absent from Google Ngram Viewer. Digicam was commonly used from 1998 until 2005, when it started to decline dramatically. Indeed, it was not until 1979 that the adjective digital began to be used for devices or pieces of equipment which use digital or computer technology, and it was only later especially used to refer to a digital camera, whose earliest occurrence in the OED is in 1998.
By contrast, dino-formations are more frequent, as shown in Figure 5.8.
Figure 5.8 Frequency change of dino-combinations in GBC
Since the corpus is case sensitive, Dinoland as well as other formations (e.g. Dinotopia) only occur with an initial capital letter.Footnote 5 There is more homogeneity in the behaviour of Dinoland and dinomania than in the previous formations investigated, except for the period between 1955 and 1970, when Dinoland reached a peak immediately followed by a collapse. However, they both started to increase in 1985, with a considerable use around the 2000s, followed by a gradual decrease. Even if the OED states that dino- chiefly forms nonce words relating to dinosaurs, Dinoland and dinomania do not appear to be unique formations, and their use still continues to be attested and even rising recently.
As for e-1, Figure 5.9 shows the trends of two formations in Google Ngram Viewer.
Figure 5.9 Frequency change of e1-combinations in GBC
The lexical item etrain was much more used in the past than today, when ecars have superseded trains as vehicles powered by electricity. This explains the initial frequency drop of etrain from 1950 until 1965, when the trend became more stable. The word ecar seems to have been particularly successful in the interval between 1976 and 1984, but its trend in use has levelled off over the years, with another frequency peak in 2013. Spelling instead deserves some more comments: while in corpora of English and the OED these two words occur as hyphenated, in GBC both the solid and the hyphenated spellings are attested, with e-car being much more frequently used than ecar in recent times.
The same is true for e2-formations, which more often occur in one-word spelling (e.g. email, ebook), but not always (cf. e-commerce), as in Figure 5.10.
Figure 5.10 Frequency change of e2-combinations in GBC
In this case, it is shown that the use of e-2 as a word-formation means has expanded only in recent years, since the late 1990s, especially in close correlation with the development of electronic media and the Internet. The model word, email, displays a sharp rise from 1990 until 2005 and still continues to grow; by contrast, in 2005, ebook seemed to be only at the beginning of its growth, while ecommerce is very infrequent even nowadays, the hyphenated spelling e-commerce being preferred to the solid spelling. However, the long lists of results obtained from corpora investigation (see § 5.1.7) contradicts this apparent infrequency: e2-words have grown in the last decade, both as neologisms and as nonce words.
Figure 5.11 reports the n-gram trends of two econo-words, which are apparently different in frequency and difficult to compare.
Figure 5.11 Frequency change of econo-combinations in GBC
The curve of the noun econometrics shows a slow and regular change between 1957 and 2019, whereas the adjective econometric alternates a rather sharp increase (1960–1980) with a more gradual decrease until 2019.
By contrast, femto-combinations are comparable to other formations (e.g. those obtained from atto- or e-2) for their n-gram trends.
Figure 5.12 shows the frequency change for femtosecond, which has increased considerably in use since 1978, and femtomolar, which instead appears to be scarcely used.
Figure 5.12 Frequency change of femto-combinations in GBC
Two comparable trends are displayed by lamino-formations, as shown in Figure 5.13.
Figure 5.13 Frequency change of lamino-combinations in GBC
The frequency of both laminoplasty and laminotomy increased over the same interval (1983–1999), but then the use of laminoplasty continued to grow until 2013, when it started to gradually decrease, while the use of laminotomy levelled off.
In Figure 5.14, some trends of Luso-formations are reported.
Figure 5.14 Frequency change of Luso-combinations in GBC
Among Luso-formations, Lusophone, a word that combines an ICF and an FCF, is evidently the most common. However, it is worth noting that spelling variants may correspond to different trends in the line chart, e.g. if we compare Lusophone with an initial capital letter with its lowercase spelling variant (lusophone). The frequency of Lusophone has also evolved over time, especially as compared with a more stable and uncommonly used word such as Lusotropicalism.
In Figure 5.15, two nega-combinations are compared.
Figure 5.15 Frequency change of nega-combinations in GBC
While negawatt is an established formation, negaholic does not occur in COCA and is a hapax legomenon in NOW. From these premises, we would expect two different trends in the two combinations. In contrast, the graph shows that both sharply increased in use between 1985 and 1992, and have continued to be found in GBC since, fluctuating between rises and drops. These results confirm the assumption that negaholic, combining nega- with the well-known secreted form -(a)holic, is far from being uncommon.
The n-gram trends of petro1-combinations are comparable with those of econo-words, as shown in Figure 5.16.
Figure 5.16 Frequency change of petro1-combinations in GBC
While most petro1-formations, like petrochemistry, display a steady trend, petrochemical was increasingly used before 1980, but has started to decline in use since then.
Figure 5.17 shows n-gram trends for two porta-combinations.
Figure 5.17 Frequency change of porta-combinations in GBC
The frequency evolution of portacabin and portapotty confirms that porta- is increasingly used as a word-formation means. The rise of both formations is rather regular between 1975 and 2019, with portapotty being much less commonly used than portacabin. As for spelling variants, the former word noticeably differs from the proprietary name Porta Potti indicating ‘a portable chemical toilet, as used by campers’ or, in North America, ‘a small prefabricated unit containing a toilet, designed for temporary installation outdoors’ (cf. British Portaloo). Porta Potti has a longer history (attested in the OED from 1968) and much more success, surviving until more recent years (2008) with various spellings (Porta-Potti, Port-a-Potty, Portapotti, Portapotty), but its final fall makes it coincide with the same usage level as portapotty.
Figure 5.18 represents the most common syn-combinations.
Figure 5.18 Frequency change of syn-combinations in GBC
The three n-gram trends are rather aligned until 1972, when synfuel began a sharp rise that reached a peak ten years later, in 1982, after which it dropped dramatically. Syngas and syncrude intersected in 1981, after which syngas increased considerably while syncrude gradually decreased until it reached the level of synfuel or even lower.
A comparable behaviour can be observed for -bot1-formations in Figure 5.19.
Figure 5.19 Frequency change of -bot1-combinations in GBC
However, mobot rose to a peak in 1997, followed by a trough, and fembot rose much later, between 2005 and 2012. By contrast, autobot was subject to a gradual increase over time.
Figure 5.20 represents n-grams of two -jack-combinations, i.e. carjack and skyjack.
Figure 5.20 Frequency change of -jack-combinations in GBC
The formation skyjack, attested in the OED already in 1961, rapidly increased in use until 1974, while carjack appeared only later, in the early 1990s, but has overtaken skyjack more recently, as the graph in Figure 5.20 corroborates.
As for -lect-formations, the curves of the three n-gram trends illustrated in Figure 5.21 are more regular and comparable for basilect and sociolect, while idiolect appears to be more frequently used, but irregularly, with peaks and drops over the years.
Figure 5.21 Frequency change of -lect-combinations in GBC
Specialised combinations such as those ending in -olol or -onium display the same n-gram trends, as illustrated in Figure 5.22.
Figure 5.22 Frequency change of -olol- and -onium-combinations in GBC
The chart shows how metoprolol and atenolol have considerably increased in use, especially since the early 1970s, while the frequency changes of charmonium and quarkonium remain comparably lower, with a levelling from 1975 onwards.
The same is true for ylidene-combinations, such as the pair methylbenzylidene and chlorobenzylidene reported in Figure 5.23.
Figure 5.23 Frequency change of -ylidene-combinations in GBC
The two specialised terms show a quite irregular trend over the years, fluctuating between higher and lower frequencies.
I conclude this diachronic analysis in GBC with -tainment-combinations.
The n-gram trends of infotainment and edutainment reported in Figure 5.24 confirm the attestation of these combinations from the early 1980s and their dramatic rise in use until the early 2000s, when many -tainment formations were also coined as nonce words.
Figure 5.24 Frequency change of -tainment-combinations in GBC
To summarise, most of the abbreviated CFs explored in this chapter display the same frequency changes in GBC, namely:
1. A considerable increase of frequency use, which is often a sharp rise, followed by a stabilisation or, in some cases, by a gradual decrease. This trend is the most widespread among abbreviated CFs, including the ICFs atto-, cyber-, digi-1, dino-, e-2, lamino-, Luso-, and porta-, and the FCFs -olol, -ylidene, and -tainment. For Brit-1 and nega-, the curve trend is more dynamic, with falls and rises that alternate over time.
2. A steady trend with no fluctuations, as for the ICF e-1 and the FCF -onium.
3. A rather regular curve with an increase around the 1980s and a gradual drop until recent times, as in econo-, petro-1, syn- (except for syngas, which falls under 1), -lect, and -bot1 (whose increase is however postponed to the 1990s).
The CFs femto-, syn-, and -jack do not display a homogeneous trend for their combinations, some of which show more rapid and sudden changes (as in 1), while others show more gradual and regular changes (as in 3). The overall tendency for abbreviated CF combinations is that of an expansion in use. Unlike neoclassical combinations, whose use started earlier, the use of abbreviated combinations has especially concentrated in the last decades. This supports their updated and rapidly expanding status as word-formation processes.
Before we move on to secreted CFs, a remark concerning the boundedness of abbreviated CFs is in order. As has been observed in the description of some such CFs – in particular, Brit-1, cyber-, and dino- – the corresponding homophonous free-standing words Brit, cyber, and dino also exist in English. In the OED, independent Brit [1948] and dino [1936] are attested before their respective CFs Brit-1 [1977] and dino- [1986]. This suggests that there may be a direct correlation between the two pairs and that the CFs have no bound status, coming from free-standing words.
However, from a diachronic investigation of n-gram trends as shown in Figures 5.25–5.26, there seems to be no parallel correspondence between the back-clippings Brit or dino and the CFs used, e.g. in Britcom (Figure 5.5) or dinomania (Figure 5.8). From a pragmatic viewpoint this is confirmed by the contrast between the colloquial use of Brit (both adjective and noun, 4,047 occ. in COCA) and of dino, and the neutral or even specialised use of the CFs, e.g. in Brit-based and dinosphere.
Figure 5.25 Frequency changes of Brit and Britcom in GBC
Figure 5.26 Frequency changes of dino and dinomania in GBC
A different case still is provided by cyber, which occurred less frequently than the CF (e.g. in cyberspace) until 2004, but later grew dramatically and is currently still widely used (Figure 5.27).
Figure 5.27 Frequency changes of cyber and cyberspace in GBC
The OED even attests a conversion of the free-standing word from the CF. In other words, cyber- [1961] first appeared in combinations and only later as a free-standing word [1992]. This demonstrates that the RP and EP of CFs may even affect their morphological category and contribute to the lexical growth of the English vocabulary, not only in terms of complex words obtained by CF combination but also in terms of simplex words obtained from the transition from affix-like to independent form.
In Section 2.4.4, different types of boundaries were discussed for the three categories of neoclassical, abbreviated, and secreted CFs, and it was also argued that, in general, abbreviated forms are more derivation-like. Nevertheless, Brit-1, dino-, and above all cyber- represent, within the heterogeneous grouping of CFs, a rare subtype that is more compounding-like in that, like compound constituents, they also occur as free morphs.
