Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Hybrid word
Summary
A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages.
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.
Antacid – from Greek ἀντι- () 'against' and Latin acidus 'acid'; this term dates back to 1732.
Aquaphobia – from Latin aqua 'water' and Greek φοβία () 'fear'; this term is distinguished from the non-hybrid word hydrophobia, which can refer to symptoms of rabies.
Asexual – from Greek prefix a- 'without' and the Latin sexus 'sex'
Automobile – a wheeled passenger vehicle, from Greek αὐτός () 'self' and Latin mobilis 'moveable'
Beatnik – a 1950s counterculture movement centered on jazz music, coffeehouses, marijuana, and a literary movement, from English 'beat' and Russian -nik 'one who does'. The term was coined in 1958 by San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen.
Biathlon – from the Latin bis 'twice' and the Greek ἆθλον () 'contest'; the non-hybrid word is diathlon
Bigamy – from Latin bis 'twice' and Greek γάμος () 'wedlock'; this term dates back to the 13th century.
Bigram – from Latin bis 'twice' and Greek γράμμα (); the non-hybrid word is digram
Bioluminescence – from the Greek βίος () 'life' and the Latin lumen 'light'
Campanology – from Latin campana 'bell' and Greek -λογία () 'the study of'
Chiral – from Greek χείρ () 'hand' and Latin adjectival suffix -ālis. The term was coined in 1894.
Chloroform – from Greek χλωρός () 'pale green' (indicating chlorine here) and Latin formica 'ant' (indicating formic acid here). The term first appeared in 1830s.
Claustrophobia – from the Latin claustrum 'confined space' and Greek φόβος () 'fear'. This term was coined in 1879.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.