COMBINING FORM In
WORD-FORMATION, a
BASE designed to combine with another, either also a combining form or a free word:
bio- with
-graphy to form
biography,
mini- with
skirt to form
miniskirt. A vowel usually facilitates the combination: in
biography, the Greek
THEMATIC VOWEL -
o-, in
miniskirt, the Latin thematic -
i-. This vowel is usually regarded as attached to the initial base (
bio-,
mini-) rather than the final base (
-graphy,
-skirt), but in Greek-derived forms it is sometimes shown as attached to the final base (
-ography,
-ology). If, however, the final base begins with a vowel (for example,
-archy as in
monarchy), the mediating vowel has traditionally been avoided (no *
monoarchy), but in recent coinages it is often kept and generally accompanied by a hyphen (
auto-analysis,
bio-energy,
hydro-electricity, not *
autanalysis, *
bienergy, *
hydrelectricity).
Translation
There are hundreds of combining forms in English and other European languages. As traditionally defined, they cannot stand alone as free words, but there are many exceptions to this rule, and in the late 20c such forms are increasingly used independently:
bio as a clipping of
biography,
telly as a respelt clipping of
television. Most combining forms translate readily into everyday language, especially nouns:
bio- as ‘life’
-graphy as ‘writing, description’. Because of this, the compounds of which they are part (usually
classical or
learned compounds) can be more or less straightforwardly paraphrased:
biography as ‘writing about a life’,
neurology as ‘the study of the nervous system’. Many combining forms are designed to take initial or final position:
autobiography has the two initial or preposed forms
auto-,
bio-, and one postposed form
-graphy. Although most occupy one position or the other, some can occupy both:
-graph- as in
graphology and
monograph;
-phil- as in
philology and
Anglophile. Occasionally, the same base is repeated in one word:
logology the study of words,
phobophobia the fear of fear.
Preposed and postposed
Forms that come first include:
aero- air,
crypto- hidden,
demo- people,
geo- earth,
odonto- tooth,
ornitho- bird,
thalasso sea. Many have both a traditional simple meaning and a modern telescopic meaning: in
biology,
bio- means ‘life’, but in
bio-degradable it telescopes ‘biologically’; although
hypno- basically means ‘sleep’ (
hypnopaedia learning through sleep), it also stands for ‘hypnosis’ (
hypnotherapy cure through hypnosis). When a form stands alone as a present-day word, it is usually a telescopic abbreviation:
bio biography,
chemo chemotherapy,
hydro hydroelectricity,
metro metropolitan. Some telescoped forms can be shorter than the original combining forms:
gynie is shorter than
gyneco- and stands for both
gynecology and
gynecologist;
anthro is shorter than
anthropo- and stands for
anthropology. Forms that come second include:
-ectomy cutting out,
-graphy writing, description,
-kinesis motion,
-logy study,
-mancy divination,
-onym name,
-phagy eating,
-phony sound,
-therapy healing,
-tomy cutting. They are generally listed in dictionaries without the interfixed vowel, which appears however in such casual phrases as ‘ologies and isms’.
Variants
Some combining forms are variants of one base. The Greek base
-graph-underlies three combining forms in English:
-gram something written or shaped, etc. (
telegram,
hologram),
-graph something written or a piece of equipment (
autograph,
polygraph),
-graphy the activity or business of writing, shaping, etc. (
telegraphy,
holography). Some are also free words, such as
mania in
dipsomania and
phobia in
claustrophobia. Some are composites of other elements, such as
encephalo- brain, from
en- in,
-cephal- head, and
-ectomy cutting out, from
ec- out,
-tom- cut,
-y, a noun-forming suffix.
Origins
In Greek and Latin grammar, combining bases usually require a thematic or stem-forming vowel. In
biography, from Greek, the thematic is -
o-; in
agriculture, from Latin, it is
-i-. In English, which does not inflect in this way and has no native thematic vowels, an element like -
o- is an imported glue that holds bases together. Its presence helps to distinguish classical compounds like
biography and
agriculture from vernacular compounds like
teapot and
blackbird. Generally, English has acquired its classical compounds in three ways: through French from Latin and Greek, directly from Latin and Greek, and by coinage in English on Greek and Latin patterns. An exception is
schizophrenia, which came into English through German, and is therefore pronounced ‘skitso’, not ‘skyzo’. The combining forms and the compounds built from them are as much a part of English as of Latin and Greek, and as much a part of French, Spanish, Italian, and any other language that cares to use them. They are an international resource.
The conservative tradition
From the Renaissance until the mid-20c, the concept of derivational purity has generally regulated the use of combining forms: Greek with Greek, Latin with Latin, and a minimum of hybridization.
Biography is Greek,
agriculture Latin, but
television is a hybrid of Greek
tele- and Latin
-vision (probably so coined because the ‘pure’ form
telescope had already been adopted for another purpose).
Kiddology facetiously combines vernacular
kid and
-ology to produce ‘the science of kidding people’. Most dictionaries follow the
OED in using
combining form (
comb. form) to label such classical elements, but the name is not widely known. In appendices to dictionaries and grammar books, combining forms are often loosely referred to as roots or affixes: ‘a logo …, properly speaking, is not a word at all but a prefix meaning word and short for logogram, a symbol, much as telly is short for television’ (Montreal
Gazette, 13 Apr. 1981). They are often referred to as affixes because some come first and some come last, but if they were affixes, a word like
biography would have no base whatever. While affixes are grammatical (like prepositions), combining forms are lexical (like nouns, adjectives, and verbs): for example,
bio- translates as a noun (life),
-graphy as a verbal noun (writing). They are also often loosely called roots because they are ancient and have a basic role in wordformation, but functionally and often structurally they are distinct from roots: the
-graph in
autograph is both a root and a combining form, while the
-graphy in
cryptography consists of root
-graph- and suffix
-y, and is only a combining form.
Contemporary developments
By and large, combining forms were a closed system from the 16c to the earlier 20c: the people who used them were classically educated, their teachers and exemplars generally took a purist's view on their use, contexts of use were mainly technical, and there was relatively little seepage into the language at large. However, with the decline of classical education and the spread of technical and quasi-technical jargon in the media, a continuum has evolved, with at least five stages:
Pure classical usage.
In the older sciences, combining forms are generally used to form such strictly classical and usually Greek compounds as:
anthocyanin,
astrobleme,
chemotherapy,
chronobiology,
cytokinesis,
glossolalia,
lalophobia,
narcolepsy,
osteoporosis,
Pliohippus,
sympathomimetic.
Hybrid classical usage.
In technical, semitechnical, and quasi-technical usage at large, coiners of compounds increasingly treat Latin and Greek as one resource, to produce such forms as:
accelerometer,
aero-generator,
bioprospector,
communicology,
electroconductive,
futurology,
mammography,
micro-gravity,
neoliberal,
Scientology,
servomechanism,
Suggestopedia.
Hybrid classical/vernacular usage.
In the later 20c, many forms have cut loose from ancient moorings:
crypto- as in preposed
Crypto-Fascist and
pseudo- as in
pseudoradical; postposed
-meter in
speedometer,
clapometer. Processes of analogy have created coinages like
petrodollar,
psycho-warfare,
microwave on such models as
petrochemical,
psychology,
microscope. Such stunt usages as
eco-doom,
eco-fears,
eco-freaks, common in journalism, often employ combining forms telescopically:
eco-standing for
ecology and
ecological and not as used in
economics. In such matters, precision of meaning is secondary to compactness and vividness of expression.
Combining forms as separate words.
In recent years, the orthography of many word forms has changed, usually without affecting pronunciation and stress. The same spoken usage may be written
micro-missile,
micro missile,
micromissile, reflecting the same uncertainty or flexibility as in
businessman,
business-man,
business man. When used in such ways, combining forms are often telescopic:
Hydro substation Hydro-Electricity Board substation,
Metro highways Metropolitan highways,
porno cult pornography cult.
New combining forms.
The mix of late 20c techno-commercial coinages includes three groups of post- and non-classical forms: (1)
Established forms:
econo- from ‘economic’, as in
econometric,
Econo-Car,
mini- from ‘miniature’, as in
miniskirt,
mini-boom,
-matic from ‘automatic’, as in
Adjustamatic,
Instamatic,
Stackomatic. (2) Less established forms, often created by blending:
accu- from ‘accurate’, as in
Accuvision;
compu- from ‘computer’, as in
Compucorp;
docu- from ‘documentary’, as in
docudrama;
dura- from ‘durable’, as in
Duramark;
porta- from ‘portable’, as in
Portacabin,
Portaphone. (3) Informal vernacular material in pseudo-classical form:
Easibird,
Healthitone,
Redi-pak,
Relax-a-Cisor (relax, exerciser). See
BLEND,
CLASSICAL COMPOUND,
INTERFIX,
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC VOCABULARY.
