Theme: Classification of compounds

Clipping is the process of cutting off one or several syllables of a word.
Apocope (back-clipping) is a final clipping, e.g. hols (holidays), ad, exam, cuss (customer), pub (public house).
Aphaerisis (fore-clipping)is an initial clipping, e.g. plane (airplane), phone, fense (defense), gator (alligator).
Syncope is a medial clipping, e.g. Maths, mart (market), circs (circumstances).
Fore-and-aft clipping is an initial and final clipping, e.g. flu, fridge, Liz, tec.
Blendingisthe formation of a new word by combining parts of two words. A blend (telescoped word, portmanteau word, fusion) is a word that combines parts of two words and includes the letters or/and sounds they may have in common as a connecting element, e.g. sm[oke] + [fo]g = smog, tele[vision] + [broad]cast = telecast, bi[nary] + [digi]t = bit, cam[era] + [re]corder corder = camcorder.
Backformation (reversion, regressive derivation, disaffixation) is the formation of a new word by subtracting a real or supposed affix from the existing word. For example, the word to butle ‘to act or serve as a butler’ is derived by subtraction of -er from a supposedly verbal stem in the noun butler; editor > to edit, baby-sitter > to baby-sit, finger-printing > finger-prints, kidnapping > to kidnap. The process is based on analogy. The noun critic was form from the verb to criticize by analogy with drama – dramatize.
Sound imitation (onomatopoeia, echoism)is the naming of an action or a thing by a more or less exact reproduction of the sound associated with, e.g. to babble, to hiss, to screech, to woof, to rumble.