Hybrid Word

A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages.

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., ''s.v.'' 'barbarism'

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'', which can refer to symptoms of rabies.
* 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''
* 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.
* 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– and English of French origin 'value'.
* Electrocution – a portmanteau – 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""Mattergy and Spime", ''Jack D Capehart's blog: REASONable Ramblings'', 08/07/2009.
/ref> 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
* 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''
* 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''
* 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:Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009)
Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns
In ''Journal of Language Contact'', Varia 2: 40–67, p. 49.

*bitkhon-íst () 'one who evaluates everything from the perspective of national security', from ''bitakhón'' 'security' + the productive internationalism ''-ist''
*khamúda-le () 'cutie (feminine singular)', from ''khamuda'' 'cute (feminine singular) + ''-le'', endearment diminutive of Yiddish origin
*kiso-lógya () 'the art of finding a political seat (especially in the Israeli Parliament)', from ''kisé'' 'seat' + the productive internationalism ''-lógya'' '-logy'
*maarav-izátsya () 'westernization', from ''maaráv'' 'west' + the productive internationalism ''-izátsya'' '-ization' (itself via Russian from a hybrid of Greek -ιζ- ''-iz-'' and Latin ''-atio'')
*miluím-nik () '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 () 'anti-disengagement'
*post-milkhamtí () 'post-war'
*pro-araví () 'pro-Arab'

Some hybrid words consist of both a non-Hebrew word and a non-Hebrew suffix of different origins:
*shababnik () 'rebel youth of Haredi Judaism', from Arabic ''shabab'' (youth) and ''-nik'' of Yiddish and Russian descent

Modern Hebrew also has a productive derogatory prefixal shm-, which results in an 'echoic expressive'. For example, um shmum (), 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'' () and abbreviated um (). Thus, when a Hebrew speaker would like to express his impatience with or disdain for philosophy, s/he can say ''filosófya-shmilosófya'' (). 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, ''concernado'' ("concerned"): "concern-" is from English and "-ado" is 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

Notes

{{Reflist

English language
Etymology
Linguistic morphology
Word coinage
Macaronic language

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