Final clipping, also called apocope, is just what the term implies: clipping or cutting off the last syllable or syllables of a word to form the clipped term, such as info for information and gas for gasoline. One of his passions is to teach young people how to write better.View all posts by Brian Wasko. Onomatopoeia is a word that describes sound. The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Myth Buster: How Many Sentences Must a Paragraph Have? By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, Apocopation and the Clipping of Words in Spanish, Definition and Examples of Productivity in Language, The Etymology of Words and Their Surprising Histories, Definition and Examples of Linguistic Purism, What Is an Acronym? I never tell people that I went to college anymore, let alone WHERE I went to college as they immediately assume things about me that are completely untrue,not the least of which is that I am a snob and an intellectual one to boot. Follow us by clicking the icons below. gents = gentelmen, Your email address will not be published. Orwell was concerned about language and its manipulation by malevolent authorities seeking to control thought, but I don’t think he’d object to the sort of shorthand version of words that gain popularity these days. That’s when the purists object. Indeed, some great literary figures vigorously opposed them, such as Jonathan Swift, who made his feelings clear in the tellingly named "A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue," first published in 1712. Are you that completely out of touch with humanity that you think someone who was better educated than you (no matter how or where) is a threat? I took a full-time teaching job this past year at a private school in the area. Jamet, Denis. Crystal, David. Clip Word Original Word Clip Word Original Word; ad: advertisement: margarine: … Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. If you like a post, please take a second to click "like," and comment as often as you like.We promise not to correct your grammar! ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. The authors add: Other examples of clipped forms in English include biz, caps, celebs, deli, exam, flu, gator, hippo, hood, info, intro, lab, limo, mayo, max, perm, photo, ref, reps, rhino, sax, stats, temp, thru, tux, ump, veep, and vet. Sight Words, Reading, Writing, Spelling & Worksheets. Whew… my shorter words are not cause for thought police citation! In morphology, clipping is the process of forming a new word by dropping one or more syllables from a polysyllabic word, such as cellphone from cellular phone. 3rd ed, Cambridge University Press, 2019. alligator – gator. Cab- cabinet Examples: bot (robot), chute (parachute), roach (cockroach), gator (alligator), phone (telephone), pike (turnpike), varsity (university), net (Internet). pram for perambulator burger. Don’t stand up, it might tip over! For example, a clipped form may replace the original word in everyday usage—such as the use of piano in place of pianoforte. When writing in academic contexts, in business writing, or another formal environment, take note of the status of these common clipped forms: There are several types of clipping, including final, initial, and complex. Lexis Journal of English Lexicology, HS 1, 2009. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Maybe it’s a sign that English speakers and writers are lazy, but we have a historic tendency to shorten long words. Has anyone ever said, “I’m going to the gymnasium after work”? A diminutive is a word form or suffix that indicates smallness, such as doggie for dog and Tommie for Thomas. examination – exam. I hope someday you have to rely on such a person for your very life to teach you the lesson that we are all in the same boat here. tab for tabulator, Fax – facsimile ad. hex for hexadecimal The usage of "clip-clopped" is an onomatopoeia. Eventually, the clipped form becomes preferred and we begin to forget what the original word was. Required fields are marked *. The authors note that clipping is especially popular in the speech of students, where it has yielded forms like prof for professor, phys-ed for physical education, and poli-sci for political science. Initial (or fore) clipping retains the final part of the word. Martin's, 2000. Swift, Jonathan. hamburger. Sight words are high frequency words that should be read fluently and automatically upon sight; they are among the most common English words and many are not spelled phonetically. It was a time-consuming job, and I just couldn’t find the time to keep up the block. A clipped form generally has the same denotative meaning as the word it comes from, but it's regarded as more colloquial and informal. O'Grady, William, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, et al. According to the book, "Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction," Some of the most common products of clipping are names—Liz, Ron, Rob, and Sue, which are shortened forms of Elizabeth, Ronald, Robert, and Susan. I think you need a good dunking. I’m back in action now though. But nobody really minds the purists. Check out our FREE sight word worksheets – we have over 150 in our database! My kids like to refer to these shortened forms as abbreves. It tends to start in informal, spoken settings, but eventually the clipped forms make their way into formal, published writing. Here are some of the more common words that we have created via clipping. bike also for motorbike Examples of fore-clipping include bot for robot and chute for parachute. It is the shortening of a compound word by preserving and combining its initial parts (or first syllables)," says ESL.ph, an online site for learning English as a second language. cello for violoncello Definition of Clipping in Linguistics Plus Examples. Either y’all to a break or Feedly has not sent messages to me. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. "As noted, clipped words form through a social process, such as students preferring to use shortened forms of common terms, as noted in 'Contemporary Linguistics.' Definition and Examples, Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia, M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester, B.A., English, State University of New York. For example, 'The horses hooves clip-clopped down the narrow path.' A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue: In a Letter to the Most Honorable Robert Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain (1712). Thanks for sharing. The same kind of social forces lead to the creation of clipped words in other English-speaking countries such as Britain," says David Crystal, a leading authority on language. That’s clearly just faddish wordplay. Source: Fry, E.B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. con also for convention, conference or congress The list below contains 95 clipped words. advertisement. (2006). amp = amplifier Everything you need to know about sight words. It’s good to be back. Clipping also makes it easier to spell and write many words. gym also for gymnastics Informal examples include 'bro' from brother and 'dis' from disrespect. It tends to start in informal, spoken settings, but eventually the clipped forms make their way into formal, published writing. If the end part of the word is clipped away it is called back clipping . True, an abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Sight Words Game is also on social media. Clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the word. BTW… glad to see posts from y’all again. Some are acceptable in formal writing, and others aren’t. He saw clipping as a symptom of "barbaric" social forces that had to be tamped down: So, the next time you hear or use a clipped word, do so knowing that it is considered acceptable in English, but remember that these shortened terms have a long and somewhat controversial history. H. Kessinger Publishing, 2010. promo for promotion Maths, which is a clipped form of mathematics, is an example of this. A contraction is a word or phrase—such as that's, a form of that has—that has been shortened by dropping one or more letters. 62 Clipped Words Used in Sentences. George Orwell, on the other hand, presaged a more ominous kind of clipping in what he called Newspeak in his dystopian classic, 1984, where the Ministry of Truth becomes minitrue, and what we call thought crime is known as crimethink. For example: advertisement – ad. Clipped forms, shortened abbreviations of words, have a checkered history. chimp for chimpanzee This reminds me of a snooty newspaper editor/columnist who insisted on saying that he had sent an “electronic mail message,” when we readers knew he had sent an “e-mail.”. 4th ed, Bedford/St. Clipped words are not abbreviations, contractions, or diminutives. © 2008-2020 Sight Word Games All Rights Reserved. I’d never thought about this! Categories: Fun with Words, Grammar and Usage, Writing Coach Must Reads Tags: clipped words, clipping, language, Brian WaskoBrian is the founder and president of WriteAtHome.com. That’s when the purists object. 12 Awesome Language Resources for the Word Nerd. Clipping differs from back-formation in that the new word retains the meaning of the original word.