Hybrid word

A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages. Such words may be considered a type of macaronic language.

Common hybrids

The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since many prefixes and suffixes in English are of Latin or Greek etymology, it is straightforward to add a prefix or suffix from one language to an English word that comes from a different language, thus creating a hybrid word.

Hybridisms were formerly often considered to be barbarisms.

English examples

• Antacid – from Greek () 'against' and Latin acidus 'acid'; this term dates back to 1732.
• Aquaphobia – from Latin 'water' and Greek () 'fear'; this term is distinguished from the non-hybrid word hydrophobia, a historical term for rabies and one of its main symptoms.
• Asexual – from Greek prefix 'without' and the Latin 'sex'
• Automobile – a wheeled passenger vehicle, from Greek () 'self' and Latin 'moveable'
• Beatnik – a 1950s counterculture movement centered on jazz music, coffeehouses, marijuana, and a literary movement, from English 'beat' and Russian 'one who does'. The term was coined in 1958 by San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen.
• Biathlon – from the Latin 'twice' and the Greek () 'contest'; the non-hybrid word is diathlon
• Bicycle – from Latin 'twice' and Greek () 'wheel'
• Bigamy – from Latin 'twice' and Greek () 'wedlock'; this term dates back to the 13th century.
• Bigram – from Latin 'twice' and Greek (); the non-hybrid word is digram
• Bioluminescence – from the Greek () 'life' and the Latin 'light'
• Campanology – from Latin 'bell' and Greek () 'the study of'
• Chiral – from Greek () 'hand' and Latin adjectival suffix . The term was coined in 1894.
• Chloroform – from Greek () 'pale green' (indicating chlorine here) and Latin 'ant' (indicating formic acid here). The term first appeared in 1830s.
• Claustrophobia – from the Latin 'confined space' and Greek () 'fear'. This term was coined in 1879.
• Cryptocurrency – from the Greek () 'hidden' and the Latin 'traversing'
• Democide – from the Greek () 'people' and the Latin '-killer'
• Divalent – from Greek () 'two' and Latin 'strong'; the non-hybrid word is bivalent
• Dysfunction – from the Greek () 'bad' and the Latin
• Eigenvalue– Template:Ety and English of French origin 'value'.
• Electrocution – a portmanteau of electricity, from the Greek (), 'amber', and execution, from the Latin , 'follow out'
• Eusociality – from the Greek () 'good' and the Latin
• Genocide – From the Greek () 'race, people' and the Latin 'to kill'
• Geostationary – From Greek () 'Earth' and the Latin , from , from 'to stand'
• Heteronormative – from Greek () 'different' or 'other' and Latin (via French ) 'norm'
• Heterosexual – from Greek () 'different' or 'other' and Latin 'sex'
• Hexadecimal – from Greek (), 'six', and Latin 'tenth'; the non-hybrid word is sedecimal, from Latin
• Hexavalent – from Greek (), 'six', and Latin , 'strong'
• Homosexual – from the Greek () 'same' and the Latin 'sex' (This example is remarked on in Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love, with A. E. Housman's character saying "Homosexuals? Who is responsible for this barbarity?... It's half Greek and half Latin!".)
• Hyperactive – from Greek () 'over' and Latin
• Hypercomplex – from Greek () 'over' and Latin 'an embrace'
• Hypercorrection – from Greek () 'over' and Latin
• Hyperextension – from Greek () 'over' and Latin 'stretching out'; the non-hybrid word is superextension
• Hypervisor – from the Greek () 'over' and the Latin 'seer'. This word is distinguished from the non-hybrid word supervisor, which is software that manages multiple user programs; a hypervisor is software that manages multiple virtual machines
• Liposuction – from the Greek () 'fat' and the Latin 'sucking'
• Macroinstruction – from the Greek () 'long' and the Latin
• Mattergy – from the Latin ('material') and the Greek () 'energy': a "word for interchangeable matter and energy" Adjectival form: "matergetic".
• Mega-annum – from the Greek () 'large', and the Latin 'year'
• Meritocracy – From the Latin 'deserved' and the Greek () 'government'
• Metadata – from the Greek () and the Latin 'given' from
• Microinstruction – from the Greek () 'small' and the Latin
• Microcomputer – from the Greek () 'small' and the English computer, from Latin
• Microvitum – from the Greek () 'small' and the pseudo-Latin , from 'life'
• Minneapolis – from the Dakota 'water' and the Greek () 'city'
• Monoculture – from the Greek () 'one, single' and the Latin
• Monolingual – from the Greek () 'only' and the Latin 'tongue'; the non-hybrid word is unilingual
• Multiethnic – from the Latin 'many' and the Greek () 'group of people'; the non-hybrid word is polyethnic
• Multigraph – from the Latin 'many' and the Greek (); the non-hybrid word would be polygraph, but that is generally used with a different meaning
• Neonate – from the Greek (), 'new', and the Latin 'birth'
• Neuroscience – from the Greek () 'sinew', and the Latin , from 'having knowledge'
• Neurotransmitter – from the Greek () 'sinew', and the Latin 'across' and 'to send'
• Nonagon – from the Latin 'ninth' and the Greek () 'angle'; the non-hybrid word is enneagon
• Oleomargarine – from the Latin 'beef fat' and the Greek 'pearl-like'
• Pandeism – from the Greek () 'all' and Latin 'god'; compare with the non-hybrid word pantheism
• Periglacial – from the Greek () and the Latin
• Petroleum – from the Greek () 'rock', and the Latin 'oil'
• Polyamory – from the Greek () 'many' and the Latin 'love'
• Polydeism – from the Greek () 'many' and the Latin 'god'; compare with the non-hybrid word polytheism
• Postsynaptic – from the Latin and English synapse, derived from Greek
• Psychosocial – from the Greek and Latin
• Quadraphonic – from the Latin meaning four and the Greek (), from () meaning sound; the non-hybrid word is tetraphonic
• Quadriplegia – from the Latin 'four' and the Greek () 'stroke', from () 'to strike'; the non-hybrid word is tetraplegia
• Sociology – from the Latin , 'comrade', and the Greek () 'word', 'reason', 'discourse'
• Sociopath – from the Latin from 'to associate with', and the Greek () 'sufferer' from (), 'incident, suffering, experience'
• Television – from the Greek () 'far' and the Latin 'seeing', from 'to see'
• Tonsillectomy – from the Latin 'tonsils' and the Greek (), 'to cut out'
• Vexillology – from the Latin word , 'flag', and the Greek suffix (), 'study'

Other languages

Modern Hebrew

Modern Hebrew abounds with non-Semitic derivational affixes, which are applied to words of both Semitic and non-Semitic descent. The following hybrid words consist of a Hebrew-descent word and a non-Semitic descent suffix:

• bitkhon-íst (ביטחוניסט‎) 'one who evaluates everything from the perspective of national security', from bitakhón 'security' + the productive internationalism -ist
• khamúda-le (חמודה׳לה‎) 'cutie (feminine singular)', from khamuda 'cute (feminine singular) + -le, endearment diminutive of Yiddish origin
• kiso-lógya (כיסאולוגיה‎) 'the art of finding a political seat (especially in the Israeli Parliament)', from kisé 'seat' + the productive internationalism -lógya '-logy'
• maarav-izátsya (מערביזציה‎) 'westernization', from maaráv 'west' + the productive internationalism -izátsya '-ization' (itself via Russian from a hybrid of Greek -ιζ- -iz- and Latin -atio)
• miluím-nik (מילואימניק‎) 'reservist, reserve soldier', from miluím 'reserve' (literally 'fill-ins') + -nik, a most productive agent suffix of Yiddish and Russian descent

The following Modern Hebrew hybrid words have an international prefix:

• anti-hitnatkút (אנטי־התנתקות‎) 'anti-disengagement'
• post-milkhamtí (פוסט־מלחמתי‎) 'post-war'
• pro-araví (פרו־ערבי‎) 'pro-Arab'

Some hybrid words consist of both a non-Hebrew word and a non-Hebrew suffix of different origins:

• shababnik (שבבניק‎) 'rebel youth of Haredi Judaism', from Arabic shabab (youth) and -nik of Yiddish and Russian descent

Some hybrid words consist of a non-Hebrew word and a Hebrew suffix:

• Individuali-ut (אינדיבידואליות‎) 'Individualism', from English Individual and ut, a productive Hebrew suffix meaning -ism

Modern Hebrew also has a productive derogatory prefixal shm-, which results in an 'echoic expressive'. For example, um shmum (או״ם־שמו״ם‎), literally 'United Nations shm-United Nations', was a pejorative description by Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, of the United Nations, called in Modern Hebrew umot meukhadot (אומות מאוחדות‎) and abbreviated um (או״ם‎). Thus, when a Hebrew speaker would like to express their impatience with or disdain for philosophy, they can say filosófya-shmilosófya (פילוסופיה־שמילוסופיה‎). Modern Hebrew shm- is traceable back to Yiddish, and is found in English as well as shm-reduplication. This is comparable to the Turkic initial m-segment conveying a sense of 'and so on' as in Turkish dergi mergi okumuyor, literally 'magazine "shmagazine" read:NEGATIVE:PRESENT:3rd.person.singular', i.e. '(He) doesn't read magazine, journals or anything like that'.

Filipino

In Filipino, hybrid words are called siyokoy (literally "merman"). For example, the word concernado ("concerned") has "concern-" come from English and "-ado" come from Spanish.

Japanese

In Japanese, hybrid words are common in kango (words formed from kanji characters) in which some of the characters may be pronounced using Chinese pronunciations (on'yomi, from Chinese morphemes), and others in the same word are pronounced using Japanese pronunciations (kun'yomi, from Japanese morphemes). These words are known as jūbako (重箱) or yutō (湯桶), which are themselves examples of this kind of compound (they are autological words): the first character of jūbako is read using on'yomi, the second kun'yomi, while it is the other way around with yutō. Other examples include 場所 basho "place" (kun-on), 金色 kin'iro "golden" (on-kun) and 合気道 aikidō "the martial art Aikido" (kun-on-on). Some hybrid words are neither jūbako nor yutō (縦中横 tatechūyoko (kun-on-kun)). Foreign words may also be hybridized with Chinese or Japanese readings in slang words such as 高層ビル kōsōbiru "high-rise building" (on-on-katakana) and 飯テロ meshitero "food terrorism" (kun-katakana).

See also

• Classical compound
• International scientific vocabulary
• List of Greek and Latin roots in English
• Phono-semantic matching
• In Sino-Japanese vocabulary, hybrid words are called jūbako (重箱) or yutō (湯桶); see: Kanji § Other readings