Back-formation may be particularly common in English given that many English words are borrowed from Latin, French and Greek, which together provide English a large range of common affixes. Many words with affixes have entered English, such as
dismantle and
dishevelled, so it may be easy to believe that these are formed from roots such as
mantle (assumed to mean "to put something together") and
shevelled (assumed to mean "well-dressed"), although these words with those meanings have no history of existing in English. Many words came into English by this route:
pease was once a
mass noun (as in "
pease pudding"), but was reinterpreted as a
plural, leading to the back-formation
pea. The noun
statistic was likewise a back-formation from the field of study
statistics. In Britain, the verb
burgle came into use in the nineteenth century as a back-formation from
burglar (which can be compared to the
North American verb
burglarize formed by suffixation). Other examples are • Singular "
sastruga", plural "sastrugi" (from
Russian): new Latin-type singular "sastrugus" has been used sometimes • Singular "
syringe", from plural "syringes"; the original Greek singular is
syrinx. Similar in nature is "
phalange", from plural "phalanges"; the original singular being
phalanx.. • Singular
tamale, from the plural
tamales; the original
Spanish singular is
tamal. • Verbs "edit" from
editor, "babysit" from
babysitter, and "spelunk" from
spelunker • Verb "donate" from
donation • Verbs "euthanase" or "euthanize" from the noun
euthanasia. • Verb "prepone" from the verb "postpone" to mean "to advance." While used predominantly in Indian English, the earliest known use is from the works of
John Irland, and predates the use of English in India. The verb
translate is a back-formation from
translation, which is from Latin
trāns + lāt- +
-tio.
Lāt- is from the very irregular (
suppletive) verb
ferō 'to carry.'
Trānslāt- in Latin was merely a semi-adjectival form of
trānsferō meaning '[something] having been carried across [into a new language]' (cf.
transfer). The result of the action
trānsferō textum 'to translate a text' was a
textus trānslātus 'a text that has been translated.' Thus the verb in English is really from a (semi-)adjectival form in Latin. Even though many English words are formed this way, new coinages may sound strange, and are often used for humorous effect. For example,
gruntled (from
disgruntled) is used only in humorous contexts, as when
P. G. Wodehouse wrote, "I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled", or the character
Turk in the American sitcom
Scrubs told another character, "I don't disdain you! It's quite the opposite – I dain you." As it happens,
gruntle and
dain are both attested much earlier, but not as antonyms of the longer forms. Back-formations frequently begin in colloquial use and only gradually become accepted. For example,
enthuse (from
enthusiasm) is gaining popularity, though today it is still generally considered nonstandard. The Latin preposition
versus, meaning against, has frequently been mistaken by children and teenagers as the present tense of a verb "to verse." A reference to a school sports competition "the Sharks
versus the Jets" might be interpreted as "the Sharks are versing the Jets." While this use of the verb has been reported in North America and Australia since the early 1980s, very few dictionaries have accepted it as standard. The immense celebrations in Britain at the news of the relief of the
Siege of Mafeking briefly created the verb
to maffick, meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly. "Maffick" is a back-formation from
Mafeking, a place-name that was treated humorously as a
gerund or
participle. There are many other
examples of back-formations in the English language. A
butler is often described as "one who buttles," a verb which remains non-standard.
River names Back-formations are frequent amongst river names in England for a number of reasons. Place names of Brittonic origin are especially susceptible to folk etymology and back-formations due to language and knowledge of the place names dying out with the
arrival and settlement of Anglo-Saxon tribes. Frequently river names are derived from nearby settlements with the suffix -ford. Typically because it is assumed that the first half of the name is in reference to the river or stream. Below are some examples of these
-ford back-formations.
River Alre The
river Alre in Hampshire was named due to a false assumption that the nearby village
Alresford was named after the river which it was located near. In reality its name comes from the
Old English alor.
River Chelmer The
River Chelmer in Essex is named after the town of Chelmsford (
Chelmeresford) which is derived from the Saxon personal name
Cēolmǣr. ==In other languages==