back-formations in English
noun
1
a word that is formed from an already existing word from which it appears to be a derivative, often by removal of a suffix (e.g., laze from lazy and edit from editor ).
It was evidently a back-formation of gullibility, which in turn was an alteration of cullibility, ultimately from cull, meaning ‘a dupe’.
Use "back-formations" in a sentence
Below are sample sentences containing the word "back-formations" from the English Dictionary. We can refer to these sentence patterns for sentences in case of finding sample sentences with the word "back-formations", or refer to the context using the word "back-formations" in the English Dictionary.
1. While some back-formations can even become standard, Conversate is decidedly nonstandard
2. A number of back-formations are words that tend to annoy people who tend to get annoyed by words: burgle (1870) comes from burglar (1541)—and only a year before burglarize arrives on the scene in 1871; Commentate (1794—a 220-year-old upstart, that one) comes from commentator (14th century); surveil (1941) comes from surveillance (1802).