1. Chapter 5

2.  Etymology – the origin and history of a word
 Lexicon – the vocabulary of a person, language,
or branch of knowledge
 Lexicography – the compiling, writing, and editing
of dictionaries
 TED Talks: Erin McKean, The Joy of
Lexicography:
http://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_t
he_dictionary.html

3.  Can you think of any new words that have
entered the English language in your
lifetime?
 When a new word enters a language, it is
called a neologism.

4.  The invention of a
totally new term
 Often comes from
a product name
 Examples:

5. Kleenex
Xerox

6.  Eponym – a new word based on the name of a
person or place
Sandwich – named after
the Earl of Sandwich
Fahrenheit – named after
Gabriel Fahrenheit

7.  Taking words from another language

9.  Russian: спорт [spɔrt]
 Korean: 스포츠 [ʃəpɔtʃə]
 Japanese: スポーツ [spɔtsɛ]
 Cognates are “borrowed” words!

10.  The direct translation of the elements of a word
into another language
 gratte-ciel (“scrape sky,” French)
 wolkenkrabber (“cloud scratcher,”
Dutch
 Wolkenkratzer (“cloud scraper,”
German)
 skyscraper (English)

11. Spanish: perro caliente
• calque
Russian: хот дог [hɔt dɔg]
• regular borrowing
Korean: 보이 프렌드
[bɔjpəɾɛndə]
· regular borrowing
Chinese: 男朋友 [nan paŋjaow]
“male friend”
· calque

12.  Joining two different words to make a new word
compound nouns

13.  Compound Adjectives
◦ good-looking
◦ low-paid
◦ fast-food
She is a good-looking,
low-paid, fast-food
restaurant employee.

14.  Combining two forms to produce a new word
 Done by joining the beginning of one word with the
end of another
 smoke + fog = smog
 breakfast + lunch = brunch
 information + commercial = infomercial
 Spanish + English = Spanglish

15.  Occurs when a long word is shortened, typically
to its first syllable
 ad vertisement
 deli catessen
 demo nstration
 condo minium
 lab oratory

16.  When a word of one type is reduced to form a
word of another type
◦ Usually a noun is reduced to form a verb
 television (n) – televise (v)
 donation (n) – donate (v)
 babysitter (n) – babysit (v)
 worker (n) – work (v)
 editor (n) – edit (v)

17.  When the function (part of speech) of a word
changes
 We think of bottle, butter, and chair as nouns…

18.  Bottle, butter, and chair can also be verbs!
◦ I bottle my own wine.
◦ Butter your toast!
◦ He chairs the committee meetings.
 Verbs can become nouns
◦ to spy (v) – a spy (n)
◦ to take over (v) – a takeover (n)
 Verbs can become adjectives
◦ to see through (v) – see-through (adj)
 Adjectives can become verbs
◦ empty (adj) – to empty (v)

19.  New words formed by using the first letters of a
set of words
 Laser: “light amplification by stimulated emission
of radiation”
 Zip (in zip code): “zone improvement plan”

20.  When a word is changed by adding an affix to it.
 Affix – small groups of letters added to a word to
change its meaning
 In English we have two types of affixes: prefixes
and suffixes
◦ Prefixes come at the beginning of a word (misguide)
◦ Suffixes come at the end of a word (respectful)
 Some other languages also use infixes
◦ Infixes are inserted into the middle of a word
◦ In English these are rarely used, and only with profanity:
◦ “absof@#$%inglutely!”