Chrysti The Wordsmith: Clipped Words - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. Discs saw hood burbs Zene morph what do these terms have in common. Well they're all fairly recent examples of words formed by a linguistic process called clipping a clipped version of a word results when one or more syllables are dropped from a polysyllabic term. For example trim the respect from disrespect and the result is discuss a slang a verb arising in the early 1980s meaning belittle or criticize Xen from magazine. Generally denotes an amateur or underground publication. When it was popularized in the early 1980s the word Xen almost always appeared with an initial apostrophe. Today decades after the coinage of the word this mark is disappearing an indication that Xen is beginning to stand on its own lexical legs. The clipping of suburbs gave us burbs a plural noun that started showing up in the 1970s burbs like Xen is gradually shedding its

apostrophe and is now functioning as a freestanding noun. Next time on Chrystie the word smith more clipped words good vibe morph and saw if you enjoy learning about our changing language. Go to your library or bookstore and investigate the dictionaries and word books in the reference section or for a bibliography of my favorite reference books. Log onto the series website wordsmith radio dot org. Kristi the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Pseud web dot com.