A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages. Such words may be considered a type of macaronic language.
Common hybrids 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.Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. 'barbarism', definition 1a, s.v. 'barbarism'
English examples Antacid – from Greek () 'against' and Latin acidus 'acid'; this term dates back to 1732. Antidepressant – from Greek "anti" and Latin "deprimere" Aquaphobia – from Latin 'water' and Greek () 'fear'; this term is distinguished from the non-hybrid word hydrophobia, a historical term for rabies and one of its main symptoms. Asexual – from Greek prefix 'without' and the Latin 'sex' Automobile – a wheeled passenger vehicle, from Greek () 'self' and Latin 'moveable' Beatnik – a 1950s counterculture movement centered on jazz music, coffeehouses, marijuana, and a literary movement, from English 'beat' and Russian 'one who does'. The term was coined in 1958 by San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen. Biathlon – from the Latin 'twice' and the Greek () 'contest'; the non-hybrid word is diathlon Bicycle – from Latin 'twice' and Greek () 'wheel' Bigamy – from Latin 'twice' and Greek () 'wedlock'; this term dates back to the 13th century. Bigram – from Latin 'twice' and Greek (); the non-hybrid word is digram Bioluminescence – from the Greek () 'life' and the Latin 'light' Campanology – from Latin 'bell' and Greek () 'the study of' Chiral – from Greek () 'hand' and Latin adjectival suffix . The term was coined in 1894. Chloroform – from Greek () 'pale green' (indicating chlorine here) and Latin 'ant' (indicating formic acid here). The term first appeared in 1830s. Claustrophobia – from the Latin 'confined space' and Greek () 'fear'. This term was coined in 1879. Cryptocurrency – from the Greek () 'hidden' and the Latin 'traversing' Democide – from the Greek () 'people' and the Latin '-killer' Divalent – from Greek () 'two' and Latin 'strong'; the non-hybrid word is bivalent Dysfunction – from the Greek () 'bad' and the Latin Eigenvalue– and English of French origin 'value'. Electrocution – a portmanteau of electricity, from the Greek (), 'amber', and execution, from the Latin , 'follow out' Eusociality – from the Greek () 'good' and the Latin Genocide – From the Greek () 'race, people' and the Latin 'to kill' Geostationary – From Greek () 'Earth' and the Latin , from , from 'to stand' Heteronormative – from Greek () 'different' or 'other' and Latin (via French ) 'norm' Heterosexual – from Greek () 'different' or 'other' and Latin 'sex' Hexadecimal – from Greek (), 'six', and Latin 'tenth'; the non-hybrid word is sedecimal, from Latin Hexavalent – from Greek (), 'six', and Latin , 'strong' Homosexual – from the Greek () 'same' and the Latin 'sex' (This example is remarked on in Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love, with A. E. Housman's character saying "Homosexuals? Who is responsible for this barbarity?... It's half Greek and half Latin!".) Hyperactive – from Greek () 'over' and Latin Hypercomplex – from Greek () 'over' and Latin 'an embrace' Hypercorrection – from Greek () 'over' and Latin Hyperextension – from Greek () 'over' and Latin 'stretching out'; the non-hybrid word is superextension Hypervisor – from the Greek () 'over' and the Latin 'seer'. This word is distinguished from the non-hybrid word supervisor, which is software that manages multiple user programs; a hypervisor is software that manages multiple virtual machines Liposuction – from the Greek () 'fat' and the Latin 'sucking' Macroinstruction – from the Greek () 'long' and the Latin Mattergy – from the Latin ('material') and the Greek () 'energy': a "word for interchangeable matter and energy""What Can the Mattergy?" (review of John F. Wharton, The Explorations of George Burton), Time magazine, March 19, 1951."Einstein could have simplified matters considerably by coining a word such as mattergy, matter and energy merely being different forms of mattergy, mattergy I and mattergy II." J.W.T. Spinks, "Language and Science," American Chemical Society, Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 31, no. 7 (1 July 1954), p. 348.Google Scholar lists articles and books that discuss mattergy: "occupation of mattergy", Naked Science Forum, last entry: 23 December 2006Jamesmessig, "Speculations on Harnessing Ambient Real Mattergy within Intragalactic and Intergalactic Space for Ultra-High Relativistic Gamma Factor Manned Space Craft", Jamesmessig's Weblog, 21 November 2008."Mattergy and Spime", Jack D Capehart's blog: REASONable Ramblings, 7 August 2009. Adjectival form: "matergetic". Mega-annum – from the Greek () 'large', and the Latin 'year' Meritocracy – From the Latin 'deserved' and the Greek () 'government' Metadata – from the Greek () and the Latin 'given' from Microinstruction – from the Greek () 'small' and the Latin Microcomputer – from the Greek () 'small' and the English computer, from Latin Microvitum – from the Greek () 'small' and the pseudo-Latin , from 'life' Minneapolis – from the Dakota 'water' and the Greek () 'city' Monoculture – from the Greek () 'one, single' and the Latin Monolingual – from the Greek () 'only' and the Latin 'tongue'; the non-hybrid word is unilingual Multiethnic – from the Latin 'many' and the Greek () 'group of people'; the non-hybrid word is polyethnic Multigraph – from the Latin 'many' and the Greek (); the non-hybrid word would be polygraph, but that is generally used with a different meaning Neonate – from the Greek (), 'new', and the Latin 'birth' Neuroscience – from the Greek () 'sinew', and the Latin , from 'having knowledge' Neurotransmitter – from the Greek () 'sinew', and the Latin 'across' and 'to send' Nonagon – from the Latin 'ninth' and the Greek () 'angle'; the non-hybrid word is enneagon Oleomargarine – from the Latin 'beef fat' and the Greek 'pearl-like' Pandeism – from the Greek () 'all' and Latin 'god'; compare with the non-hybrid word pantheism Periglacial – from the Greek () and the Latin Petroleum – from the Greek () 'rock', and the Latin 'oil' Polyamory – from the Greek () 'many' and the Latin 'love' Polydeism – from the Greek () 'many' and the Latin 'god'; compare with the non-hybrid word polytheism Postsynaptic – from the Latin and English synapse, derived from Greek Psychosocial – from the Greek and Latin Quadraphonic – from the Latin meaning four and the Greek (), from () meaning sound; the non-hybrid word is tetraphonic Quadriplegia – from the Latin 'four' and the Greek () 'stroke', from () 'to strike'; the non-hybrid word is tetraplegia Sociology – from the Latin , 'comrade', and the Greek () 'word', 'reason', 'discourse' Sociopath – from the Latin from 'to associate with', and the Greek () 'sufferer' from (), 'incident, suffering, experience' Television – from the Greek () 'far' and the Latin 'seeing', from 'to see' Tonsillectomy – from the Latin 'tonsils' and the Greek (), 'to cut out' Vexillology – from the Latin word , 'flag', and the Greek suffix (), 'study' Vorarephilia from the Latin vorare (to eat) and Greek -philia (fondness)
Other languages Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew abounds with non-Semitic derivational affixes, which are applied to words of both Semitic and non-Semitic descent. The following hybrid words consist of a Hebrew-descent word and a non-Semitic descent suffix:Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009), Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns. In Journal of Language Contact, Varia 2: 40–67, p. 49.
bitkhon-íst () 'one who evaluates everything from the perspective of national security', from bitakhón 'security' + the productive internationalism -ist khamúda-le () 'cutie (feminine singular)', from khamuda 'cute (feminine singular) + -le, endearment diminutive of Yiddish origin kiso-lógya () 'the art of finding a political seat (especially in the Israeli Parliament)', from kisé 'seat' + the productive internationalism -lógya '-logy' maarav-izátsya () 'westernization', from maaráv 'west' + the productive internationalism -izátsya '-ization' (itself via Russian from a hybrid of Greek -ιζ- -iz- and Latin -atio) miluím-nik () 'reservist, reserve soldier', from miluím 'reserve' (literally 'fill-ins') + -nik, a most productive agent suffix of Yiddish and Russian descent
The following Modern Hebrew hybrid words have an international prefix: anti-hitnatkút () 'anti-disengagement' post-milkhamtí () 'post-war' pro-araví () 'pro-Arab'
Some hybrid words consist of both a non-Hebrew word and a non-Hebrew suffix of different origins: shababnik () 'rebel youth of Haredi Judaism', from Arabic shabab (youth) and -nik of Yiddish and Russian descent
Some hybrid words consist of a non-Hebrew word and a Hebrew suffix: Individuali-ut () 'Individualism', from English Individual and ut, a productive Hebrew suffix meaning -ism
Modern Hebrew also has a productive derogatory prefixal shm-, which results in an 'echoic expressive'. For example, um shmum (), literally 'United Nations shm-United Nations', was a pejorative description by Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, of the United Nations, called in Modern Hebrew umot meukhadot () and abbreviated um (). Thus, when a Hebrew speaker would like to express their impatience with or disdain for philosophy, they can say filosófya-shmilosófya (). Modern Hebrew shm- is traceable back to Yiddish, and is found in English as well as shm-reduplication. This is comparable to the Turkic initial m-segment conveying a sense of 'and so on' as in Turkish dergi mergi okumuyor, literally 'magazine "shmagazine" read:NEGATIVE:PRESENT:3rd.person.singular', i.e. '(He) doesn't read magazine, journals or anything like that'.
Filipino In Filipino, hybrid words are called siyokoy (literally "merman"). For example, the word concernado ("concerned") has "concern-" come from English and "-ado" come from Spanish.
Japanese In Japanese, hybrid words are common in kango (words formed from kanji characters) in which some of the characters may be pronounced using Chinese pronunciations (on'yomi, from Chinese morphemes), and others in the same word are pronounced using Japanese pronunciations (kun'yomi, from Japanese morphemes). These words are known as jūbako (重箱) or yutō (湯桶), which are themselves examples of this kind of compound (they are autological words): the first character of jūbako is read using on'yomi, the second kun'yomi, while it is the other way around with yutō. Other examples include 場所 basho "place" (kun-on), 金色 kin'iro "golden" (on-kun) and 合気道 aikidō "the martial art Aikido" (kun-on-on). Some hybrid words are neither jūbako nor yutō (縦中横 tatechūyoko (kun-on-kun)). Foreign words may also be hybridized with Chinese or Japanese readings in slang words such as 高層ビル kōsōbiru "high-rise building" (on-on-katakana) and 飯テロ meshitero "food terrorism" (kun-katakana).
See also Classical compound International scientific vocabulary List of Greek and Latin roots in English Phono-semantic matching In Sino-Japanese vocabulary, hybrid words are called jūbako (重箱) or yutō (湯桶); see: Kanji § Other readings
Notes
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