commutation

en-noun

commutation (countable and uncountable, plural commutations)

From French commutation, from Latin commūtātiōnem, accusative singular of commūtātiō.

(linguistics) Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.


compound

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).

злучэнне

chemistry: substance made by chemical combination of elements

(linguistics) A lexeme that consists of more than one stem.

In the majority of the compounds of non- the hyphen is usually retained; but it is commonly omitted in the case of a few, such as nonconformist, nonentity, nonsense, in which the etymology has been to some extent lost sight of.

(linguistics) A lexeme that consists of more than one stem or an affix, e.g. "bookshop", "high school" or "non-standard".


labial

Borrowing from Medieval Latin labiālis (“of or pertaining to the lips”), from labium (“a lip”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to labium + -al.

af

(linguistics, phonetics) Articulated by the lips, as the consonants b, m and w.


labial

The motions of the Tongue, Lips, Throat, Palate, & c. which go to the making of the ſeveral Alphabetical Letters are worthy inquiry, and pertinent to the preſent Inquiſition of Sounds: But becauſe they are ſubtil and long to deſcribe, we will refer them over, and place them amongſt the Experiments of Speech. The Hebrews have been diligent in it, and have aſſigned which Letters are Labial, which Dental, which Guttural, & c

1670, Francis Bacon, Sylva sylvarum : or, a natural history in ten centuries, Natural History, Century II, pp 197-98

You have but the same four letters to describe the salute which you perform on your grandmother’s forehead, and that which you bestow on the sacred cheek of your mistress; but the same four letters, and not one of them a labial.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 47, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

Those were his first words of the voyage, and they were spoken with unstuttered labials.

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 578:

(linguistics, phonetics) A consonant articulated by the lips.


citation

en-noun

citation (countable and uncountable, plural citations)

[ˌsaɪˈtʰeɪʃn̩]

From Middle English citacioun, from Old French citation, from Latin citātiō. By surface analysis, cite + -ation.

Historically, target words were garnered through focused reading programs and citations were handwritten on slips of paper which were collated alphabetically and stored in drawers for ready access (much like old-fashioned library catalogues).

2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 3:

dictionary on historical principles
dictionary on historical principles

(lexicography) A quotation with attached bibliographical details demonstrating the use of a particular lexical item in a dictionary, especially a dictionary on historical principles.

شَاهِد

(lexicography) a quotation with attached bibliographical details


contamination

contamination (countable and uncountable, plural contaminations)

[kənˌɾ̃æm.əˈneɪ.ʃən]

(linguistics) A process whereby words with related meanings come to have similar sounds.

(linguistics, etymology) The influence of one form (often from a foreign language) on the historical development of another form to which it may be related in meaning.

contaminatie

linguistics, etymology: the influence of one form (often from a foreign language) on the historical development of another form to which it may be related in meaning


domestication

domestication (countable and uncountable, plural domestications)

(translation studies) The act of domesticating a text.


biceps

biceps (plural biceps or bicepses or bicipites)

biceps (plural)
bicepses (plural)
bicipites (plural)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Latin biceps (“double-headed, two peaked”), from bis (“double”) + caput (“head”). See there for more details.

der

Also it is advisable to distinguish this ( ˘ ˘ ) — ˘ ˘ — rhythm, where the princeps was probably shorter in duration than the biceps (as in the dactylic hexameter), from true (marching) anapaests, in which they were equal.

1987, Martin Litchfield West, Introduction to Greek Metre:

This means that in the metrical sequence[…] recited in ordinary speech rhythm, the princeps occupied a slightly shorter time than the biceps (5:6), and if a long syllable was used to fill the biceps it had to be dragged a little[…]

2000, James I. Porter, Nietzsche and the Philology of the Future, page 347:

(prosody) A point in a metrical pattern that can be filled either with one long syllable (a longum) or two short syllables (two brevia)


dissimilation

en-noun

dissimilation (countable and uncountable, plural dissimilations)

/ˌdɪsɪmɪˈleɪʃən/

From dis- + -similation, after assimilation.

(phonology) A phenomenon whereby similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word become less similar, resulting in a form that is easier for the listener to perceive.


dislocation

dislocation (countable and uncountable, plural dislocations)

From Middle English, from Old French, a borrowing from Medieval Latin dislocātiō, delocatio.

(grammar) A sentence structure in which a constituent that could otherwise be either an argument or an adjunct of a clause occurs outside of and adjacent to the clause boundaries.


derivation

derivation (countable and uncountable, plural derivations)

From Middle English derivacioun, borrowed from Middle French dérivation, from Latin dērīvātiō, dērīvātiōnem.
Morphologically derive + -ation

the derivation of a word from an Indo-European root

(genealogy, linguistics) The act of tracing origin or descent; an instance thereof (for example, an etymology).

(grammar) Forming a new word by changing the base of another word or by adding affixes to it.

törəmə

forming a new word by changing the base of another word or by adding affixes to it


importation

importation (countable and uncountable, plural importations)

Coordinate term: substitution

(linguistics) The use of a term which consists of formally foreign elements.

tuonti

A term consisting of formally foreign elements


coordination

coordination (usually uncountable, plural coordinations)

/kəʊˌɔːdɪˈneɪʃən/

/koʊˌɔɹdɪˈneɪʃən/

/kəʉˌoːdɪˈnæɪʃən/

From Middle French coordination, from Late Latin coōrdinātiōnem (accusative of coōrdinātiō), from con- + ōrdinātiō.
Morphologically coordinate + -ion.

en:conjoining of phrases with a conjunction

(grammar) An equal joining together of two or more phrases or clauses, for example, using and, or, or but.

coordenação

an equal joining together of two or more phrases or clauses


inalienable

Borrowed around 1645 from French inaliénable, from in- + aliénable (“alienable”), equivalent to in- + alienable.

(grammar) Of or pertaining to a noun belonging to a special class in which the possessive construction differs from the norm, especially for particular familial relationships and body parts.

inalienável

grammar: of a noun class belonging to a special class


infelicitous

en-adj

infelicitous (comparative more infelicitous, superlative most infelicitous)

more infelicitous (comparative)
most infelicitous (superlative)

"Now, you've got just grounds for shooting me," he said gaily, and instantly regretted his infelicitous remark.

1909, William MacLeod Raine, “chapter 24”, in Ridgway of Montana:

Inappropriate or awkward; not well said, expressed, or done.

злополучен

inappropriate or awkward; not well said, expressed, or done

(linguistics) Of a sentence or utterance: not semantically and pragmatically coherent.


incorporation

en-noun

incorporation (countable and uncountable, plural incorporations)

/ɪŋ.kɔɹpəˈɹeɪʃən/

From Middle English incorporacioun, from Old French incorporacion, from Late Latin incorporatio.

Incorporation is central to many polysynthetic languages such as those found in North America, Siberia and northern Australia.

(linguistics) A phenomenon by which a grammatical category forms a compound with its direct object or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function.

bekebelezés

linguistics: a phenomenon by which a grammatical category forms a compound with its direct object or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function


flap

From Middle English flap, flappe (“a slap; blow; buffet; fly-flap; something flexible or loose; flap”), related to Saterland Frisian Flappert (“wing, flipper”), Middle Dutch flabbe (“a blow; slap on the face; fly-flap; flap”) (modern Dutch flap (“flap”)), Middle Low German flabbe, vlabbe, flebbe, from the verb (see below). Related also to English flab and flabby.

cog

(phonetics) A consonant sound made by a single muscle contraction, such as the sound /ɾ/ in the standard American English pronunciation of body.


flap

en-verb

flap (third-person singular simple present flaps, present participle flapping, simple past and past participle flapped)

flaps (present singular third-person)
flapping (participle present)
flapped (participle past)
flapped (past)

From Middle English flappen (“to flap, clap, slap, strike”), related to Dutch flappen (“to flap”), German Low German flappen (“to flap”), German flappen (“to flap”), Dutch flabberen (“to flit, flap”). Probably ultimately imitative.

onomatopoeic

imitative

(phonetics, transitive) To pronounce (something) as a flap consonant.

(phonetics, intransitive) To be pronounced with a flap consonant.


extension

en-noun

extension (countable and uncountable, plural extensions)

From Middle English extensioun, from Old French estension, from Latin extensiō, extensiōnem.

Perversely, we love John Wick himself. That lethal, bereaved assassin is a good bad guy for our times, the natural extension of Tony Soprano, Walter White and all the other heroic antiheroes the culture has embraced.

2023 March 14, Caryn James, “John Wick: Chapter 4: 'Soars above most action films'”, in BBC:

In addition to concepts and conceptual senses, Frege holds that there are extensions of concepts. Frege calls an extension of a concept a ‘course of values’. A course of values is determined by the value that the concept has for each of its arguments. Thus, the course of values for the concept __ is a dog records that its value for the argument Zermela is the True and for Socrates is the False, and so on. If two concepts have the same values for every argument, then their courses of values are the same. Thus, courses of values are extensional.

2011 July 20, Edwin Mares, “Propositional Functions”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, retrieved 2012-07-15:

(semantics) Capacity of a concept or general term to include a greater or smaller number of objects; — correlative of intension.

extenze

semantics: capacity of a concept or general term to include a greater or smaller number of objects

(linguistics, semantics) semantic widening, broadening of meaning

(grammar) A kind of derivative morpheme applied to verbs in Bantu languages.


intonation

intonation (countable and uncountable, plural intonations)

From French intonation, from Medieval Latin intonatio, from intonō + -tiō.

(linguistics) The rise and fall of the voice in speaking.

تَجْوِيد

the rise and fall of the voice in speaking


interpretation

interpretation (countable and uncountable, plural interpretations)

/ɪntɚpɹəˈteɪʃən/

/ɪntəpɹəˈteɪʃən/

From Middle English [Term?], from Anglo-Norman [Term?], from Old French [Term?], from Latin interpretātiō, noun of action from interpretor (“to explain, expound, interpret, understand, conclude, infer, comprehend”)
Morphologically interpret + -ation

I believe that interpretation, particularly consecutive interpretation, is an art. I also believe, however, that the skill of consecutive interpretation can be taught, but only up to a point.

1994, Richard K. Seymour, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Translation and Interpreting: Bridging East and West : Selected Conference Papers, University of Hawaii Press, page 11

Interpretation studies is a young discipline, much younger than translation studies, and it cannot claim a long tradition and history of reflexions ^([sic]) and studies.

2002, Alessandra Riccardi, Translation Studies: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 90:

The most pervasive need of non-English-speaking immigrants and refugees is interpretation for every English transaction. Interpretation is needed in stores, schools, and job training, and it is of critical importance in health care.

2013, Sana Loue, Handbook of Immigrant Health, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 61:

(uncountable, linguistics, translation studies) The discipline or study of translating one spoken or signed language into another (as opposed to translation, which concerns itself with written language).

превод

the discipline of translating a spoken language


node

→ Irish: nód

From Middle English node, borrowed from Latin nōdus. Doublet of knot, knout, and nodus.

computational linguistics
computational linguistics

(computational linguistics) The word of interest in a KWIC, surrounded by left and right cotexts.


hedge

From Middle English hegge, from Old English heċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *haggju, from Proto-Germanic *hagjō, from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Cognate with Dutch heg, German Hecke. Doublet of hey (a choreographic figure) and quay. More at haw.

doublet

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards

When not inaccurate, much commentary on the contents of Hobson-Jobson is couched in hedges or relies on speculative estimates in the absence of exact information.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487:

(pragmatics) A non-committal or intentionally ambiguous statement.


sequential

(grammar, of a verb and adjective form in Korean) Expressing succession of events.

Succeeding or following in order.
Expressing succession of events.


leash

From Middle English leesshe, leysche, lesshe, a variant of more original lease, from Middle English lees, leese, leece, lese, from Old French lesse (modern French laisse), from Latin laxa (“thong, a loose cord”), feminine form of laxus (“loose”); compare lax. Doublet of laisse.

(prosody) A kind of metrical construct in Skeltonics.


mention

en-verb

mention (third-person singular simple present mentions, present participle mentioning, simple past and past participle mentioned)

mentions (present singular third-person)
mentioning (participle present)
mentioned (participle past)
mentioned (past)

Inherited from Middle English mencioun, mention, from Old French mention, from Latin mentiōnem, accusative of mentiō (“a mention, calling to mind”).

I can illustrate this by mentioning the word lead. Now you have no way of knowing for sure which meaning I have in mind until I give it some context by using it in a sentence.

2006, Tony Evans, The Transforming Word: Discovering the Power and Provision of the Bible, Moody Publishers, →ISBN, page 140:

If the verbatimness view derives from the popular notion that DST repeats 'the actual words spoken', a second line of thought takes its cue from Quine's (1940: 23–26, 1960: 146–156) philosophical distinction between words which are “used” vs. words which are merely “mentioned”.

2009, Lieven Vandelanotte, Speech and Thought Representation in English: A Cognitive-functional Approach, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 124:

If I said rightly, “'Niggers' is a seven letter word,” I would be mentioning the word, and when we write it, we use mention-quotes for this purpose (speech typically lacks quotes, except for the occasional air-quotes). If I said, rightly or wrongly, “Niggers are good athletes,” then I would be using “niggers,” not merely mentioning it.

2013, Richard Hanley, South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating, Open Court, →ISBN:

(philosophy, linguistics) To utter a word or expression in order to refer to the expression itself, as opposed to its usual referent.

mainita

to utter an expression in order to refer to the expression itself


potential

en-noun

potential (countable and uncountable, plural potentials)

From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”). By surface analysis, potent + -ial.

(grammar) A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.


potential

(grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.


primitive

From Middle English primitif, from Old French primitif, from Latin prīmitīvus (“first or earliest of its kind”), from prīmus (“first”); see prime. Doublet of primitivo.

der

(linguistics) An original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative.

kantasana

linguistics: word not derived from another


primitive

en-adj

primitive (comparative more primitive, superlative most primitive)

more primitive (comparative)
most primitive (superlative)

prymitywny

old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity

a primitive verb

Division of words. Words are primitive or radical, and derivative or compound.
Of primitive words. Primitive or radical words are such as cannot be divided, or separated into parts which are significant; as man, hope, bless.

1831, Noah Webster, Rudiments of English Grammar; Being an Abridgment of the Improved Grammar of the English Language, New-Haven, page 6:

(grammar) Original; primary; radical; not derived.

We infer that other groups of related languages, such as the Germanic (or the Slavic or the Celtic), which show a similar resemblance, have arisen in the same way; it is only an accident of history that for these groups we have no written records of the earlier state of the language, as it was spoken before the differentiation set in. To these unrecorded languages we give names like Primitive Germanic (Primitive Slavic, Primitive Celtic, and so on).

1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, Henry Holt, page 13:

(linguistics, dated) most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of


release

en-noun

release (countable and uncountable, plural releases)

From Middle English relesen, relessen, from Old French relaisser (variant of relascher).

отцепване

a device adapted to hold or release a device or mechanism as required

(phonetics, sound synthesis) The act or manner of ending a sound.


tetrameter

tetrameter (countable and uncountable, plural tetrameters)

(prosody) A poetic metre in which each line has four feet.


glottogony

/ɡlɒˈtɒɡəni/

/ɡləˈtɒɡəni/

From Ancient Greek γλῶττα (glôtta, “tongue, language”) + γονή (gonḗ, “generation”).

uder

The origin of words is a question that now falls within the chapter of “glottogony”, resurrected after decades of inactivity. There are now quite a few glottogonic theories, some of which are also concerned with the origin of words as, for example, the one that argues that original words are connected with phonosymbolism, […]

1995, Werner Winter, editor, On Languages and Language […] , Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 19:

The topic of glottogony has long been a taboo in linguistics, for the very good reason that it attracts boundless speculation: when Darwinism was freshly en vogue in the 1860s, linguistic debate was inundated with such proposals to the point where, in 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris banned the entire topic as a hopeless exercise […]

2020, Philipp Roelli, editor, Handbook of Stemmatology […] , Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN:


AAVE

Initialism of African-American Vernacular English.


slack

en-adj

slack (comparative slacker, superlative slackest)

slacker (comparative)
slackest (superlative)

From Middle English slak, from Old English slæc (“slack”), from Proto-Germanic *slakaz. For sense of coal dust, compare slag.


African-American Vernacular English

A variation of Modern English spoken predominantly by lower socioeconomic class individuals of African descent, usually in urban or suburban surroundings in the United States.

非洲裔美國人白話英語

variation of Modern English spoken by African-Americans


Ebonics

Blend of ebony + phonics. Coined by scholars at the 1973 Cognitive and Language Development of the Black Child conference led by Robert L. Williams and published in his 1975 book Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks. Considered outdated by some.

Buried among the jargon of the announcement was a mention of a name for AAVE, suggested by a Black scholar in 1975^([sic]) but never adopted by linguists: Ebonics. That word, concocted from ebony (a color term from the name of a dark-colored wood) and phonics (the name of a method for teaching reading), was destined to attach to the board as if chiseled into a block of granite and hung round their necks.

1999, Geoffrey K. Pullum, “African American Vernacular English Is Not Standard English with Mistakes”, in Rebecca S. Wheeler, editor, The Workings of Language, →ISBN, page 40:

African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English (AAVE).

Robert Williams (psychologist)
en:Ebonics


epenthesis

en-noun

epenthesis (countable and uncountable, plural epentheses)

Middle of 16th century: via Late Latin, from Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις (epénthesis), from ἐπεντίθημι (epentíthēmi, “I insert”), from ἐπί (epí) + ἐντίθημι (entíthēmi, “I put in”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “I put, place”).

(phonetics, prosody) The insertion of a phoneme, letter, or syllable into a word, usually to satisfy the phonological constraints of a language or poetic context.

epentese

insertion of a phoneme or letter into a word


short form

"Tux" is a short form of "tuxedo".

"Rob" is a short form of "Robert".

(phonetics) A word with the same meaning as another formed by removing one or more of the syllables of the longer word, and considered a word in its own right rather than an abbreviation.

forme tronquée

word formed by removing syllables from another

нов, нова, ново, новы (nov, nova, novo, novy) are short forms of новый (novyj).

(grammar) Particularly in Slavic languages, a shortened form of the adjective, used predicatively.

forma curta

shortened form of an adjective, used predicatively


ultimately

Cognate to Gottscheerish boßər, bàsser. Ultimately cognate to standard High German Wasser.

Shortened from maxiature, ultimately from Latin maximus ("large").

Ultimately from Latin equus ("horse").

(linguistics) Used to indicate the etymon at which a given etymological derivation terminates.


nom de guerre

/ˌnɒm də ˈɡɛə(ɹ)/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nom de guerre.wav

Borrowed from French nom de guerre (literally “war name”), referring to the pseudonyms used during wars.


shell

From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cleave”).
Compare West Frisian skyl (“peel, rind”), Dutch schil (“peel, skin, rink”), Low German Schell (“shell, scale”), Irish scelec (“pebble”), Latin silex (“pebble, flint”), siliqua (“pod”), Old Church Slavonic сколика (skolika, “shell”). More at shale.
Doublet of sheal.
* (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals.

cog

(phonology) The onset and coda of a syllable.


syncretistic

en-adj

syncretistic (comparative more syncretistic, superlative most syncretistic)

more syncretistic (comparative)
most syncretistic (superlative)

/ˌsɪŋkɹəˈtɪstɪk/

(linguistics) Relating to a historical tendency for a language (such as English) to reduce its use of inflection.


reciprocal

From Latin reciprocus, possibly from a phrase such as reque proque (“back and forth, to and fro”), from re- (“back”), prō (“forwards”) and -que (“and”).

(grammar) Expressing mutual action, applied to pronouns and verbs; also in a broad sense: reflexive.

kölcsönös

grammar: expressing mutual action, applied to pronouns and verbs


reciprocal

Depending on where reciprocalization applies (syntax vs. lexicon), the relevant reciprocal verbs are claimed to exhibit specific properties, in particular: (i) syntactic reciprocals are fully productive whereas lexical reciprocals have only limited productivity; […]

2008, Ekkehard König, Volker Gast, Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations:

(grammar) A construction expressing mutual action.


ejective

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ejective.wav

(phonetics) A nonpulmonic consonant formed by squeezing air trapped between the glottis and an articulator further forward, and releasing it suddenly.


formal

formal (comparative more formal, superlative most formal)

more formal (comparative)
most formal (superlative)

From Middle English formel, borrowed from Old French formel, from Latin fōrmālis, from fōrma (“form”); equivalent to form + -al.

A set of words can be formal cognates only if they can be derived from a common ancestor by regular sound laws.

Only formal proofs, which derive theorems logically from their given axioms, are considered satisfactory in modern mathematics.

(especially sciences, mathematics, linguistics) In accordance with a methodological framework with well-defined rules or laws; rigorous.


n-word

Hence, the reasoning applied to (15) above extends to (20), leading us to conclude that the n-word rien,

2011, Vivian Dèprez, The Evolution of Negatation, page 242:

(linguistics) A negation word, such as not, nobody, or nothing.

(linguistics) A Danish/Swedish/Norwegian noun of the common gender (their indefinite article being en), as opposed to t-words, nouns of the neuter gender (their indefinite article being et).


concordance

en-noun

concordance (countable and uncountable, plural concordances)

From Old French concordance, from Late Latin concordantia.

(grammar, obsolete) Agreement of words with one another; concord.

(computational linguistics) A list of occurrences of a word or phrase from a corpus, with the immediate context.


aspirate

(linguistics) The puff of air accompanying the release of a plosive or fricative consonant.

We now come to the so-called aspirate [h], which must be also classified as a fricative consonant.

1972, Leonard R. Palmer, Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics, page 50:

(linguistics) A sound produced by such a puff of air.


aspirate

en-verb

aspirate (third-person singular simple present aspirates, present participle aspirating, simple past and past participle aspirated)

aspirates (present singular third-person)
aspirating (participle present)
aspirated (participle past)
aspirated (past)

There is no doubt that the uncertainty about the letter H, which much defaces English in some classes of the community, is due entirely to Norman influence, for Frenchmen could not aspirate. Three words—hour, honor, heir, with compounds of them such as hourly, honourable, heirship, and the like, are quite enough to puzzle people who find H sometimes sounded, sometimes not.

1887, James Frederick Hodgetts, Greater England, page 33:

(transitive, intransitive, linguistics) To produce an audible puff of breath, especially following a consonant, such as the letter "h" at the beginning of house or hat in standard English.

送气

linguistics: to produce an audible puff of breath


explosive

en-adj

explosive (comparative more explosive, superlative most explosive)

more explosive (comparative)
most explosive (superlative)

From Latin explōs-, stem of the perfect passive participle of explōdō + the suffix -ive.

the explosive consonants


explosive

The words of these songs were either without meaning, or derived from an idiom with which Watt, a very fair linguist, had no acquaintance. The open a sound was predominant, and the explosives k and g.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:


periphery

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *per-der.
Ancient Greek περί (perí)
Ancient Greek περῐ- (peri-)
Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-
Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti
Proto-Hellenic *pʰérō
Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō)
Ancient Greek περιφέρω (periphérō)
Proto-Indo-European *-os
Proto-Indo-European *-ēs
Ancient Greek -ης (-ēs)
Ancient Greek περιφερής (peripherḗs)
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂der.
Ancient Greek -ια (-ia)
Ancient Greek περιφέρεια (periphéreia)bor.
Latin peripheriabor.
Middle French peripheriebor.
English periphery
Borrowed from Middle French peripherie. Compare Middle English periferie (“one of three layers of atmosphere (lower, middle, and upper) believed to surround the Earth”), from the same origin, although the Modern English term most likely does not descend from it.

m+

(grammar, linguistics) The more anomalous and infrequent aspects of a language, as opposed to the frequent and regular core aspects.


Chomskyan

en-adj

Chomskyan (comparative more Chomskyan, superlative most Chomskyan)

more Chomskyan (comparative)
most Chomskyan (superlative)

(linguistics) Following the theoretical approach introduced by Noam Chomsky, et al.


corruption

en-noun

corruption (countable and uncountable, plural corruptions)

Borrowed from French corruption, from Latin corruptiō, equivalent to corrupt + -ion.

The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass.

1897, Bram Stoker, chapter I, in Dracula, New York: Grosset & Dunlap:

Even though the longer ending of Mark is itself secondary, its wording was no more immune to corruption than any other portion of the New Testament text (as scribes would normally not know they were corrupting a corruption).

1996, Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture:

(linguistics) A nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, especially when resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, or mishearing.

Korruptel

(linguistics) a debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.


intrusion

intrusion (countable and uncountable, plural intrusions)

/ɪnˈtɹuːʒən/

From Middle English intrusioun, from Old French intrusion, from Medieval Latin intrūsiō, from intrūdō, from Latin in- + trūdō.

A current challenge in recent work on Spanish sound structure is to understand the conditions that determine vowel intrusion and the consequences vowel intrusion may have on Spanish phonology.

2009, Benjamin Schmeiser, edited by Marine Vigário, Sónia Frota, and M. João Freitas, Phonetics and Phonology: Interactions and Interrelations, →ISBN, page 181:

(phonology) The insertion of a phoneme into the pronunciation of a word despite its absence from the spelling. (e.g. intrusive r)


etymon

etymon
femoral head fracture
femoral neck fracture
hip fracture
pelvic fracture

From Ancient Greek ἔτυμον (étumon, “the true sense of a word according to its origin”), from ἔτυμος (étumos, “true, real, actual”).

bor

Coordinate term: cognate

Here such cases as ghost words & misglosses, secondary semantics, different etymologies for one etymon or one etymology for different etyma, and finally semantic overpermissiveness are discussed.

2006, Folia orientalia - Volumes 42-43, page 467:

The resulting citation collection was databased and coded for meaning, etymon, and date range (earliest and latest occurrence found).

2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 5:

Parricide, the more usual word, means (1) "the murder of one's own father"; or (2) "someone who murders his or her own father" […] It is also used in extended senses, such as "the murder of the ruler of a country" and "the murder of a close relative." These are not examples of slipshod extension, however, for even the Latin etymon (parricida) was used in these senses.

2016, Bryan A. Garner, Garner's Modern English Usage, 4th edition:

(linguistics) The original or earlier form of an inherited or borrowed word, affix, or morpheme either from an earlier period in a language's development, from an ancestral language, or from a foreign language.


license

en-verb

license (third-person singular simple present licenses, present participle licensing, simple past and past participle licensed)

licenses (present singular third-person)
licensing (participle present)
licensed (participle past)
licensed (past)

From Middle English licencen, licensen, lisensen, licent, from Old French licencer, licencier, licenciier, licenser, from Medieval Latin licentiō (cf. English licentiate).

No English adverbs have mandatory complements, and most don't even license optional ones.

Kayne argues that the crucial fact which licenses preposition stranding in English but not in French is the fact that in English verbs and prepositions assign Case similarly, and hence they govern similarly.

2014, Hagit Borer, Parametric Syntax: Case Studies in Semitic and Romance Languages:

(linguistics, transitive) To permit (as grammatically correct).


shrub

From Middle English schrub, schrob, (also unassibilated as scrub), from Old English *sċrob (in placenames) and sċrybb (“a shrub; shrubbery; underbrush”); akin to Norwegian skrubbe (“the dwarf cornel tree”).

cog

A woody plant smaller than a tree, and usually with several stems from the same base.

It is not only in face-to-face contexts that Kenyans police shrubbing; there are newspaper columns inviting readers to send in shrubs that they have witnessed, […]

2010, Norma Mendoza-Denton, Dana Osborne, “Two Languages, Two Identities?”, in Carmen Llamas, Dominic Watt, editors, Language and Identities, →ISBN, page 121:

One of the first people to go on air on X Fm, Raabia (It’s not a kuyu [Kikuyu] shrub for labia) is about to exit the station, she’s being replaced by Mao (their lispy producer) […]

2011 September 23, Yeye, “Fuck it!”, in Media Madness, archived from the original on 2011-09-24:

place of articulation
place of articulation

(Kenya) A word mispronounced by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation due to interference from one's knowledge of an indigenous Kenyan language.


shrub

en-verb

shrub (third-person singular simple present shrubs, present participle shrubbing, simple past and past participle shrubbed)

shrubs (present singular third-person)
shrubbing (participle present)
shrubbed (participle past)
shrubbed (past)

The people who benefit from making fun of shrubbing, therefore, are Kenyans who do not speak indigenous languages, because they are less likely to shrub than Kenyans who learned English as a second language in school and may have a heavier accent.

2010, Norma Mendoza-Denton, Dana Osborne, quoting Heidi Orcutt-Gachiri, “Two Languages, Two Identities?”, in Carmen Llamas, Dominic Watt, editors, Shrubbing and the evaluation of expertise in Kenyan English and Kiswahili: placing Kenyan indigenous languages at risk, 2008, page 7, quoted in Language and Identities, →ISBN, page 121:

However, Mwandani and her brother had noted that their mother had shrubbed and pointed it out right away.

2014, Michael Gathonjia Wairungu, “The notion of shrubbing vs. Mother tongue interference: a question of generation”, in "A Language of Many Hats": The Rise of Sheng and other Linguistic Styles among Urban Youth in Kenya, page 310:

It is still considered embarrassing if people in authority like teachers or newscasters “shrub.”

2019 April 19, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, “Harro! I shrub because, really, I have no otherwise, do I?”, in The East African, retrieved 2021-11-05:

(transitive, Kenya) To mispronounce a word by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation due to interference from one's knowledge of an indigenous Kenyan language.


shrub

en-noun

shrub (countable and uncountable, plural shrubs)

From Arabic شِرَاب (širāb, “a drink, beverage”), شَرِبَ (šariba, “to drink”), akin to syrup, sherbet, and sorbet.

der

A liquor composed of vegetable acid, fruit juice (especially lemon), sugar, sometimes vinegar, and a small amount of spirit as a preservative. Modern shrub is usually non-alcoholic, but in earlier times it was often mixed with a substantial amount of spirit such as brandy or rum, thus making it a liqueur.


occurrence

From Middle French occurrence, from Medieval Latin occurrentia.
Morphologically occur + -ence.

The time interval of an occurrence—a temporal instantiation—is a single occasion. However, a series of such occasions can fall within a certain time interval; in this case we may represent the occurrence as a single situation (cf. I ran off and on for an hour, I ran and ran for an hour, I would run and then run some more).

1991, Robert Binnick, Time and the Verb: A Guide to Tense and Aspect, page 180:

The most basic Aktionsart distinction is between states and occurrences. […]Based on consideration of inherent differences between the events involved, Vendler distinguished three different types of occurrence, achievements, activities, and accomplishments.

2010, Nick Riemer, Introducing Semantics, page 320:

(grammar, semantics) The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that change in or over time.


middle name

(name between first and last names): First recorded from Harvardiana in 1835.
 The Philippine sense is from the adaptation of Filipino full names from former Spanish naming customs to the US naming custom of given name first, then the mother's surname before marriage, then the father's surname.

I go by David but it's my middle name; my full name is William David Mason.

a name between the first given name and the family name or surname; a second or subsequent given name

сре́днее и́мя

not used in Russia, patronymics are used instead, foreign context


Engrish

From the mispronunciation of the word English common to Japanese speakers, who have difficulty distinguishing "L" and "R" sounds. The Japanese transliteration of the word "English", イングリッシュ (Ingurisshu) is often used for teaching purposes. In that word, /ɾ/ (romanised as "r") is pronounced instead of the English /l/.

'Why you not teach Engrish more? I must aspeak^([sic]) Engrish.' The Chelsea's resident mad painter was angry at the way Jeremy had been ignoring him.

2003, Bruce L. Russell, Channelling Henry, page 129:

(sometimes derogatory) Ungrammatical, unorthographical or nonsensical English, especially that which is found in East Asia, notably in Japan.


Spanglish

Dunglish

mixture of English and Dutch in the Netherlands

Llanito

mixture of English and Spanish in Gibraltar

The Nobel laureate Octavio Paz is said to have had it that Spanglish is “neither good, nor bad, but abominable.”

2021 November 23, John McWhorter, “America Has More Than One Spanglish”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A language blend of English and Spanish spoken by both Latinas, Latinos, and Anglo-Americans.


progressive

/pɹəˈɡɹɛsɪv/

/pɹəˈɡɹɛsɪv/

/pɹəˈɡɹesɪv/

From the Middle French progressif, from the Latin prōgressīvus, from prōgredior (perfect participial stem: prōgress-) + -īvus. Displaced native Old English forþgenġe.

suffix

perfect participial stem: <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">prōgress-</i>

(grammar) A progressive verb; a verb used in the progressive tense and (in English) generally conjugated to end in -ing.


variety

en-noun

variety (countable and uncountable, plural varieties)

From Middle French varieté (“variety”) (modern French variété (“variety; genre, type”)) or directly from its etymon Latin varietās (“difference; diversity, variety”) + English -ty (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives). Varietās is derived from varius (“different, diverse, various; variegated”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to abandon; to give out; to leave”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being). The English word displaced the native Old English mislīcnes.
Sense 1.3.2 (“total number of distinct states of a system; logarithm to the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system”) was coined by the English psychiatrist William Ross Ashby (1903–1972) in his work An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956).
cognates
* Galician variedade (“variety”)
* Italian varietà (“difference; variety”)
* Portuguese variedade (“variety”)
* Spanish variedad (“breed; variety”)

der

The mere existence of a dictionary of a certain variety of English does not automatically confer acceptance of that variety.

2014 March, James Lambert, “Diachronic Stability in Indian English Lexis”, in World Englishes, volume 33, number 1, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Pergamon Press for the International Association for World Englishes, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 114:

(linguistics) A specific form of a language, neutral to whether that form is an accent, dialect, register, etc., and to its prestige level; an isolect or lect.

моўная разнавіднасць

specific form of a language, neutral to whether that form is an accent, dialect, register, etc., and to its prestige level — see also isolect, lect


BCS

(linguistics) Initialism of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian treated commonly (Serbo-Croatian)


Amerind

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Amerind.wav

Blend of American + Indian or possibly blend of American + indigenous. First appears c. 1899 in the publication American Anthropologist.

(linguistics, obsolete) Of or relating to a hypothetical higher-level language family including all of the indigenous languages of the Americas, excluding those that belong to Eskimo-Aleut or Na-Dene.


salience

en-noun

salience (countable and uncountable, plural saliences)

(social sciences, linguistics) Relative importance based on context.


semivowel

(phonetics) A sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel.


demotic

demotic (countable and uncountable, plural demotics)

First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek δημοτικός (dēmotikós, “common”), from δημότης (dēmótēs, “commoner”), from δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people”).

bor

2010, John C. Wells, accents map
Note the intrusion into British demotic (“me and Cheryl were having”) of the valley-girl quotative be, like.

(linguistics) Language as spoken or written by the common people.


attestation

en-noun

attestation (countable and uncountable, plural attestations)

/ˌætɛˈsteɪʃən/

/ˌætɛˈsteɪʃən/

From Middle French attestation, from Latin attestātiō; by surface analysis, attest + -ation.

A historical dictionary cannot do this though it cannot also neglect this aspect because the attestation of a rare meaning is bound to be very limited.

1972, Indian Linguistics, volumes 33-34, Linguistic Society of India, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 237:

The eastern-most attestation of Sl skola in the meaning of synagogue appears to be in Smolensk Russian.

1987, Paul Wexler, Explorations in Judeo-Slavic Linguistics, →ISBN, page 125:

So something must have been developing over long periods empty of attestation; and whatever it was, it must (by principles to be discussed in the next section) have been a language of the usual kind.

1997, Roger Lass, Historical Linguistics and Language Change, page 23:

For each word, the date of its first attestation in the English language, as documented in the Oxford English Dictionary, and its frequency of occurrence in the British National Corpus are given.

2009, Ingo Plag with Maria Braun, Sabine Lappe, and Mareile Schramm, Introduction to English Linguistics, page 110:

Furthermore, the first attestations given in the OED are not always the earliest attestations in print; since the first edition was finished in 1928, many earlier and later examples have been identified, and these will be incorporated into the third edition, currently underway (see Durkin 2002 for a discussion of how much this is likely to change the dates of attestation in the OED as a whole).

2010, Kathryn Allan, “Tracing metonymic polysemy through time: MATERIAL FOR OBJECT mappings in the OED”, in Margaret E. Winters, Heli Tissari, Kathryn Allan, editors, Historical Cognitive Linguistics, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 176:

In the first edition this is generally chronological, i.e. following the earliest date of attestation for each sense

2012, Alexander Bergs, English Historical Linguistics, volume 2, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1154:

(linguistics, of a language, word, word form, or word meaning) An appearance in print or otherwise recorded on a permanent medium.

word; word form; or word meaning; word; word form; or word meaning


negative

en-adj

negative (comparative more negative, superlative most negative)

more negative (comparative)
most negative (superlative)

/ˈnɛ(e)ɡəˌɾɪv/

From Middle English negative, negatif, from Old French negatif, from Latin negātīvus (“that denies, negative”), from negāre (“to deny”); see negate.

der

(linguistics, logic) Denying a proposition.


negative

/ˈnɛ(e)ɡəˌɾɪv/

(grammar) A word that indicates negation.


a priori

en-adj

a priori (comparative more a priori, superlative most a priori)

more a priori (comparative)
most a priori (superlative)

/ˌeɪ pɹaɪˈɔːɹaɪ/

/ˌɑː pɹiˈɔːɹi/

/ˌeɪ pɹaɪˈɔːɹi/

First attested in 1610. Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ā priōrī (“involving reasoning from cause to effect; from first principles”, literally “from the former”).

lbor

Conlangers can also create a priori languages, which have no basis in existing languages. You might be familiar with more a priori conlangs than you think: The Klingon language from the television series “Star Trek,” the Na’vi language from the movie “Avatar,” and the Dothraki language from the television series “Game of Thrones” are all examples of a priori languages.

2012 November 1, Laura Wright, “UT Language Creation Society invites students to learn origins of newer languages”, in The Daily Texan, archived from the original on 2013-02-26:

(linguistics, conlanging) Developed entirely from scratch, without deriving it from existing languages.

fiktiivinen

linguistics: developed entirely from scratch


deontic

en-adj

deontic (comparative more deontic, superlative most deontic)

more deontic (comparative)
most deontic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek δέον (déon, “what is right”); compare deontology.

der

(ethics, linguistics) Pertaining to necessity, duty or obligation, or expressions conveying this.

deòntic

pertaining to necessity, duty or obligation


tonic

Of or relating to tones or sounds; specifically (phonetics, dated) being or relating to a speech sound made with tone unmixed and undimmed by obstruction, i.e. a vowel or diphthong.


tonic

(phonetics) A tonic element or letter; a vowel or a diphthong.


prescriptivism

en-noun

prescriptivism (countable and uncountable, plural prescriptivisms)

(linguistics) The practice of prescribing idealistic norms, as opposed to describing realistic forms, of linguistic usage.


rheme

From Ancient Greek ῥῆμα (rhêma, “word, phrase, verb”).

bor

Coordinate term: theme

(linguistics) The part of a sentence that provides new information regarding the current theme.

(Peircean semiotics) A sign that represents its object in respect of quality and so, in its signified interpretant, is represented as a character or mark; sumisign.


satellite

From Middle French satellite, from Latin satelles (“attendant”). Ultimately perhaps of Etruscan origin.

(grammar) A grammatical construct that takes various forms and may encode a path of movement, a change of state, or the grammatical aspect. Examples: "a bird flew past"; "she turned on the light".


translingual

From trans- (“across”) + lingual (“having to do with languages or tongues”).

pre

The nose's comic potency is enhanced by the Indo-European rootedness of its own name, securing it a pivotal role in translingual games.

1994, Cordner, Holland & Kerrigan, editor, English Comedy:

(linguistics) Existing in multiple languages.

This receiver, as translator, then performs a kind of "translingual transfer" to encode in a second language a new message that is intended to "mean the same" . .

1986, James S. Holmes, Translated: Papers on Literary Translation and Translation Studies:

(translation studies) Operating between different languages.


SPE

(linguistics) The Sound Pattern of English


counterfactual

(linguistics, philosophy) A conditional statement in which the conditional clause is false.


variant

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-variant.wav

Recorded since c.1380, from Old French variant, from Latin variāns, the present active participle of variō (“to change”).

The "Terms" number is the total number of words and lexical phrases, including sub-headwords and other nested lexical items, but exclusive of variants.

2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 297:

Each member of this group of two or more forms is called a variant. [...] In this case ‘-in’ and ‘-ing’ are variants of the sociolinguistic variable -ing.

2014, Kimberly Geeslin, Avizia Yim Long, Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition, page 27:

(linguistics, lexicography) One of a set of words or other linguistic forms that conveys the same meaning or serves the same function.


CV

en-noun

CV (countable and uncountable, plural CVs)

Abbreviation
* (anime, Japanimation): From Japanese CV (CV), from English character+voice
* (aircraft carrier): Initialism of cruiser (“croiseur”) + French voler (“to fly”).

initialism of

(phonetics) Initialism of cardinal vowel.


set phrase

Bally remarks in passing, as Hall does not, that the inversion in toujours est-il que is part of a set phrase and hence invariable.

1951, Gordon M. Messing, “Structuralism and Literary Tradition”, in Language, volume 27, number 1, page 3:

American courts sometimes use cherry in place of apple, but the latter fruit vastly predominates. The American version is that rare set phrase that is not so well set, variations on the phrase being more common than the main phrase itself.

2009, Bryan A. Garner, Garner on Language and Writing, page 525:

(grammar) An established expression whose wording is subject to little or no variation, and which may or may not be idiomatic.

If it proves clearly unfeasible to make the audience laugh at a thin and far-fetched joke, it is always better to change the way the joke works . . . for instance, a pun based on the speaker's taking literally some set phrase or metaphor with a pun based on phonetic similarity.

1992, Stanislaw Baranczak, "How to Translate Shakespeare's Humor?: (Reflections of a Polish Translator)", in the Performing Arts Journal, volume 14, number 3, page 83

(grammar) An idiomatic expression in general.


a posteriori

en-adj

a posteriori (comparative more a posteriori, superlative most a posteriori)

more a posteriori (comparative)
most a posteriori (superlative)

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ā posteriōrī (“involving reasoning from effect to cause, from experience to theory”, literally “from what follows”). Popularized from the 19th century in reference to the work of Immanuel Kant.

learned borrowing

(linguistics, of a constructed language) Developed on a basis of languages which already exist.


voiceless

(phonetics, of a consonant or vowel) Spoken without vibration of the vocal cords; unvoiced, surd, breathed. Examples: [t], [s], [f], [m̥], [u̥].

مهموس

phonetics, of a consonant: spoken without vibration of the vocal cords


prescriptivist

The plutocratic tone and styptic wit of Safire and Newman and the best of the Prescriptivists is often modeled after the mandarin-Brit personas of Eric Partridge and H. W. Fowler, the same Twin Towers of scholarly Prescriptivism whom Garner talks about revering as a kid.

2001 April, David Foster Wallace, “Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage”, in Harper's Magazine:

(linguistics) Someone who lays down rules regarding language usage, or who believes that traditional norms of language usage should be upheld.


appositive

(grammar) a word or phrase that is in apposition


apposition

en-noun

apposition (countable and uncountable, plural appositions)

/ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/

From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere (“to put near”).

The apposition in the title has been read as indicating that ‘Hobson-Jobson’ is equivalent to ‘colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases’.

2014, James Lambert, “A Much Tortured Expression: A New Look At `Hobson-Jobson'”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 27, number 1, page 65:

(grammar) A construction in which one noun or noun phrase is placed with another as an explanatory equivalent, both of them having the same syntactic function in the sentence.

(grammar) The relationship between such nouns or noun phrases.


instructive

(linguistics) A case in the Finnish and Estonian languages. It expresses the means or the instrument used to perform an action.

instruktiv

Case expressing means or instrument used to perform an action


intransitive

The word "drink" is a transitive verb in "they drink wine", but an intransitive one in "they drink often."

(grammar, of a verb) Not transitive: not having, or not taking, a direct object.


intransitive

This means that subcategorization properties do not allow us to distinguish between transitives and intransitives (both types of verbs are allowed, but not obliged, to take a direct object).

2011, Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, The Syntax of Romanian: Comparative Studies in Romance, page 136:


laryngeal

/ləˈɹɪn.d͡ʒəl/

Derived from New Latin laryngeus + -al, from larynx (“larynx”) + -eus (adjectival suffix). By surface analysis, laryng- + -al or -ial.

af

(phonetics, relational) (of a speech sound) Made by or with constriction of the larynx with only the front part of the vocal cords vibrating, giving a very low frequency and producing what is known as "creaky voice."


laryngeal

/ləˈɹɪn.d͡ʒəl/

(phonetics) A sound uttered by using the larynx.

The vowel-coloring effects of the IH laryngeals cannot be considered apart from the vowel-reducing effect of the IH stress accent[…]

1940, J. Alexander Kerns, Benjamin Schwartz, “The Laryngeal Hypothesis and Indo-Hittite, Indo-European Vocalism”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 60, number 2, →DOI, page 183:

[…]it is not only different from Buck's in the linguistics (laryngeals have seen to that); it is very different in scope and aim.

1995, Andrew L. Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page viii:

Finally, it should be noted that laryngeals not adjacent to syllabics were apparently deleted by three different rules.

2006, Donald Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 15:

(Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European, one of the typically three reconstructed consonants usually marked as ⟨h₁⟩, ⟨h₂⟩ and ⟨h₃⟩.


grade

→ Japanese: グレード (gurēdo)

→ Swahili: gredi

Borrowed from Middle French grade (“a grade, degree”), from Latin gradus (“a step, pace, degree”), from Proto-Italic *graðus, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰradʰ-, *gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”). Doublet of gradus.
Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌹𐌸𐍃 (griþs, “step, grade”), Bavarian Gritt (“step, stride”), Lithuanian grìdiju (“to go, wander”).

(linguistics) Degree (any of the three stages (positive, comparative, superlative) in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb).


grade

en-verb

grade (third-person singular simple present grades, present participle grading, simple past and past participle graded)

grades (present singular third-person)
grading (participle present)
graded (participle past)
graded (past)

He has rightly observed that while -ísimo superlatives are typically prenominal, adjectives graded with the intensifier muy "very" are characteristically postnominal.

1999, Jon Franco, Alazne Landa, Juan Martín, Grammatical Analyses in Basque and Romance Linguistics: Papers in Honor of Mario Saltarelli, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 65:

Adjectives graded for comparative and superlative degree can function both attributively and predicatively. Most descriptive adjectives are gradable: As modifiers of a noun Have you got a larger size? […]

2014, Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course, Routledge, →ISBN, page 430:

Similarly to the Hungarian adjectives graded with the suffix -ik, in place of naj, najto, or, in agreement with the noun, -najte, -najta, -najto forms occur, e.g., najtolepsi or najtelepsi, najtelepsa, najtelepse 'most beautiful'.

2020, Prekmurje Slovene Grammar: Avgust Pavel’s Vend nyelvtan (1942), BRILL, →ISBN, page 82:

(linguistics) To describe, modify or inflect so as to classify as to degree.


modification

en-noun

modification (countable and uncountable, plural modifications)

/ˌmɑdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

/ˌmɒdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

Borrowed from Middle French modification, from Latin modificātiō (“a measuring”), from modificāre (“to limit, control, modify”); see modify.

(linguistics) the change undergone by a word when used in a construction (for instance am => 'm in I'm)

The Chinese word "kòu tóu" had a modification made to become the English "kowtow".

(linguistics) a change to a word when it is borrowed by another language


umbrella term

“Cryptology” is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis.

Transmasculine is an umbrella term referring to individuals who were assigned to a female gender role at birth but at some point come to self-identify as men, or with some other masculine identity, rather than seeing themselves as women.

2014, Tommaso M. Milani, Language and Masculinities: Performances, Intersections, Dislocations, Routledge, →ISBN, page 197:

2017, Michael R. Kauth, Jillian C. Shipherd, Adult Transgender Care: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Training Mental Health Professionals, Routledge, →ISBN:

A term used to cover a broad category of things rather than a single specific item.

總稱

term covering a broad category of things


construction

construction (countable and uncountable, plural constructions)

→ Mongolian: констракшн (konstrakšn)

From Middle English construccioun, construction, from Old French construction, from Latin cōnstructiō, from cōnstruere, present active infinitive of cōnstruō.
Morphologically construct + -ion.

(grammar) A group of words arranged to form a meaningful phrase.


possessive case

possessive case (plural possessive cases)

Substantives in the English tongue, have only two terminations for case: the nominative, which merely expresses the name of the thing, and the possessive, or genitive case, made by the addition of s, with an apostrophe before it, which denotes property: all other realtions between substantives, as this also very often, are expressed by different prepositions: for example---a freeman's rights; or the rights of a freeman.
When one thing is expressed as belonging to another, then one of the substantives is said to govern the other in the genitive, or possessive case; thus, Milton's poems; the king's gift; William's book. Here the former substantive, ending in s, marked with an apostrophe, is the word governed; as Milton's: the latter is the word that governs; as, poems: the former is in the genitive case, which is marked thus, 's, which mark is called the possessive 's.

1784, An Essay towards an English Grammar. With a Dissertation on the Nature and peculiar Use of certain Hypothetical Verbs, in the English Language., London, p.5 & p.83:

(grammar) case used to express direct possession, ownership, origin, etc. Though similar in many ways to the genitive case, it is not always the same. Languages that have the possessive case include English and Quenya.


OHG

(linguistics) Initialism of Old High German.


composition

composition (countable and uncountable, plural compositions)

→ Korean: 컴포지션 (keompojisyeon)

/ˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən/

From Middle English composicioun, borrowed from Old French composicion, from Latin compositiō, compositiōnem.

hyvitys

agreement to pay money in order to clear a liability or obligation

(linguistics) The formation of compound words from separate words.

yhdyssanojen muodostaminen

linguistics: formation of compound words from separate words


meronymy

meronymy (countable and uncountable, plural meronymies)

From mero- + -onymy (from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part”) + ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”)); compare meronym.

This relationship of meronymy is controversial for various reasons. First, there are several types of meronymy, such as functional meronymy, where one concept is a functional part of another (e.g. FINGER-HAND) or more general part-whole relations, where the part and the whole exist as a continuous entity (e.g. FLAME-FIRE). Secondly, there are diverging opinions as to whether meronymy should be treated as a semantic primitive in the sense of [syn]onymy, antonymy, and hyponymy.

1995, Jürgen Handke, The Structure of the Lexicon: Human Versus Machine, page 90:

But whereas hyponymy is a member—class relation, reflecting a taxonomy or conceptual hierarchy, meronymy is a part—whole relation, reflecting the existence of complex structures in concrete reality.

1999, Sylvia Adamson, “7: Literary Language”, in Roger Lass, editor, The Cambridge History of the English Language: Volume III: 1476-1776, page 564:

Possession, like meronymy, is described in English (and equivelently in other languages) with the verb to have (A millionaire has money) and the line between possession and part-having is fuzzy at best.[…]Priss (1998) suggests that meronymy might be formalized as an attribution relation, such that HAS-A-HANDLE-FOR-A-PART would be an attribute of hammer and cup. Thus, the case for separating attribution and possession from meronymy is not strong.

2003, M. Lynne Murphy, Semantic Relations and the Lexicon: Antonymy, Synonymy and Other Paradigms, pages 233–234:

(semantics) The relationship of being a constituent part or member of something; a system of meronyms.


role

→ Spanish: rol

From French rôle, from Middle French rolle, from Old French role, from Medieval Latin rotulus. Doublet of roll and rotulus.

massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Examining these verbs one by one, what one finds is that Auxiliary Selection does correlate in the expected way with the two kinds of optional transitivity, confirming that with each predicate, one semantic role has a fixed link with initial 1-hood, another with initial 2-hood.

1984, David M. Perlmutter, Carol G. Rosen, Studies in relational grammar: Volume 2:

(grammar) The function of a word in a phrase.

funció

(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase


ellipse

From French ellipse. Doublet of ellipsis.

(grammar) The removal from a phrase of a word which is grammatically needed, but which is clearly understood without having to be stated.


ellipse

en-verb

ellipse (third-person singular simple present ellipses, present participle ellipsing, simple past and past participle ellipsed)

ellipses (present singular third-person)
ellipsing (participle present)
ellipsed (participle past)
ellipsed (past)

In B's response to A's question:- (A: Would you like to go out?, B: I'd love to), the words that are ellipsed are go out.

(grammar) To remove from a phrase a word which is grammatically needed, but which is clearly understood without having to be stated.


Waray-Waray

Borrowed from Waray-Waray Waray-Waray, from Waray.

(linguistics) A central Philippine Visayan language from the islands of Samar, Biliran, and northeast Leyte.


classifier

American Sign Language
American Sign Language

(linguistics) A word or morpheme used in some languages (such as Japanese and American Sign Language), in certain contexts (such as counting), to indicate the semantic class to which something belongs.


proposition

en-noun

proposition (countable and uncountable, plural propositions)

/ˌpɹɑpəˈzɪʃən/

From Middle English proposicioun, from Old French proposicion, from Latin prōpositiō, from the verb prōponō.

väite

math: assertion which can be considered true or false

constitutional amendment
constitutional amendment

(countable, US, politics) In some states, a proposed statute or constitutional amendment to be voted on by the electorate.

проект

in the US: proposed statute or constitutional amendment

Our English nouns remain unchanged, whether they form the subject or the object of a proposition.

c. 1888, The Popular Educator: a Complete Encyclopaedia of Elementary, Advanced, and Technical Education. New and Revised Edition. Volume I., page 98:


dorsal

en-adj

dorsal (comparative more dorsal, superlative most dorsal)

more dorsal (comparative)
most dorsal (superlative)

From Late Middle English dorsal/dorsale, borrowing from Medieval Latin dorsālis (“of or relating to the back”), from dorsum (“the back”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to dorsum + -al.

ظَهْرِيّ

relating to the side in which the backbone is located

(anatomy, zootomy) With respect to, or concerning the side in which the backbone is located, or the analogous side of an invertebrate.

(linguistics, of a sound) Produced using the dorsum of the tongue.


dorsal

(linguistics) A sound produced using the dorsum of the tongue.


chunk

Variant of chuck; or alternatively a diminutive of chump (“chunk; block”) + *-k (diminutive suffix) (compare hunk from hump, etc.).

examples of chunks would include "in accordance with", "the results of", and "so far"

(linguistics, education) A sequence of two or more words that occur in language with high frequency but are not idiomatic; a bundle or cluster.


allotrope

Back-formation from allotropy, as allo- + -trope, from Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos, “other”), and τρόπος (trópos, “way, manner”).

(linguistics) An other form, a different shape of a lexical unit.


proximal

en-adj

proximal (comparative more proximal, superlative most proximal)

more proximal (comparative)
most proximal (superlative)

antonym(s) of “closer to the point of attachment

From Latin proximus, superlative form of prope (“near, nigh”).


agnate

from Latin agnātus (“paternal kinsman”).

(linguistics) A statement having a similar meaning to another, but a different structure.


agnate

agnate (comparative more agnate, superlative most agnate)

more agnate (comparative)
most agnate (superlative)

[...] we can talk about a swim, a drink, a look, even though swim, drink and look can also show up as verbs in agnate clauses.

2013, Thomas Bloor, Meriel Bloor, The Functional Analysis of English:

(linguistics) Having a similar semantic meaning.


auxiliary

/ɔːɡˈzɪli.əɹi/

/ɔɡˈzɪliɛɹi/

/ɑɡˈzɪliɛɹi/

From Latin auxiliārius (“assistant, ally”), equiv. to auxiliāris (“helping, aiding”), from auxilium (“help, aid”), from augēre (“to increase”).

(grammar) Relating to an auxiliary verb.


auxiliary

/ɔːɡˈzɪli.əɹi/

/ɔɡˈzɪliɛɹi/

/ɑɡˈzɪliɛɹi/

The three traditionally recognized Non-modal Auxiliaries are the per-
fective Auxiliary have, the progressive Auxiliary be, and the passive Auxiliary
be. Perfective have is so-called because it marks the completion (hence, perfec-
tion) of an action; it is followed by a VP headed by a perfective -n participle, as
in:
(121) The referee has [_(VP) shown him the red card]

1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 151:


vocabulary

en-noun

vocabulary (countable and uncountable, plural vocabularies)

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin vocābulārium.

lbor

The vocabulary of any language is influenced by contacts with other cultures.

Vocabulary provides a foundation from which grammar, phonology, and morphology emerge, and in a subject area it provides access to conceptual knowledge. Vocabulary selection for pedagogical purposes is therefore crucial.

2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 106:

The words of a language collectively; lexis.


yield

en-verb

yield (third-person singular simple present yields, present participle yielding, simple past yielded or (obsolete) yold, past participle yielded or (obsolete) yolden)

yields (present singular third-person)
yielding (participle present)
yielded (past)
yold (obsolete past)
yielded (participle past)
yolden (obsolete participle past)

From Middle English yielden, yelden, ȝelden (“to yield, pay”), from Old English ġieldan (“to pay”), from Proto-West Germanic *geldan, from Proto-Germanic *geldaną (“to pay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots yield (“to yield”), North Frisian jilden (“to pay”), Saterland Frisian Saterland Frisian jäilde (“to be valid; matter; count; be worth”), West Frisian jilde (“to pay”), Low German Low German gellen, Dutch gelden (“to apply, count, be valued, be regarded”), German gelten (“to apply, count, be valued, be regarded”), Icelandic gjalda (“to pay, yield, give”), Danish gælde (“to apply, count, be valued, be regarded”), Norwegian Bokmål gjelde.

cog

to end all resistance because of loss of hope

because of helplessness and extreme weakness

Indo-European p- yields Germanic f-.

(linguistics) To produce a particular sound as the result of a sound law.


phatic

en-adj

phatic (comparative more phatic, superlative most phatic)

more phatic (comparative)
most phatic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek φατός (phatós, “spoken”) - from φημί (phēmí, “I say”) - + -ic.
Probably formally influenced by emphatic, which predates this term.

Generally speaking, statements in WE are expected to be of a tautologous nature, thus fulfilling the essential phatic nature of speech.

Dispensing with phatic chitchat, he began straightaway to tell the story of his “people.”

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 467:

(linguistics) Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship.

fàtic

pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship


refer

en-verb

refer (third-person singular simple present refers, present participle referring, simple past and past participle referred)

refers (present singular third-person)
referring (participle present)
referred (participle past)
referred (past)

From Middle English referren, from Old French referer, from Latin referre. The noun (used in journalism) is from the verb.

(grammar) To be referential to another element in a sentence.


proto-

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πρωτο- (prōto-), combination form of πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”), superlative of πρό (pró, “before”).

Proto-

proper names of protolanguages and their associated people

All Indo-European languages from Albanian to Zazaki are descended from Proto-Indo-European.

(linguistics, genetics) Most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of.

প্রত্ন-

(linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages


hypocorism

en-noun

hypocorism (countable and uncountable, plural hypocorisms)

/haɪˈpɑkəˌɹɪzəm/

Borrowed from Late Latin hypocorisma, a loan from Ancient Greek ὑποκόρισμα (hupokórisma), ὑποκορισμός (hupokorismós, “pet name”), from ὑποκορίζεσθαι (hupokorízesthai), ὑποκορίζομαι (hupokorízomai, “to use a pet name; to act in a childish manner”), from ῠ̔πο- (hupo-, prefix indicating a small degree) + κορίζομαι (korízomai, “to caress”) (from κόρος (kóros, “boy; youth”), κόρη (kórē, “girl; young woman”)).

af

"Mary" is informed that "Polly" is one of those "hypocorisms," or pet-names, in which our language abounds. Most are mere abbreviations, as Will, Nat, Pat, Bell, &c., taken usually from the beginning, sometimes from the end of the name.

1850 February 2, Benj[amin] H[all] Kennedy, “Pet-names”, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc., volume I, number 16, London: George Bell, […], published 16 February 1850, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 242, column 1:

For the flattering hypocorisms of lovers and parents see Plut. de Leg. Poet. p. 44; [...]

1865, Frederic W[illiam] Farrar, “The Nature of Words”, in Chapters on Language, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, footnote 3, pages 281–282:

The addition of diminutive or familiar prefixes and suffixes to the name of a saint to produce a 'pet name' or hypocorism, is common in the Celtic areas and would at times seem to produce extra saints from doublets of existing names.

2000, Karen Jankulak, “The Cult of St Petroc in Cornwall”, in The Medieval Cult of St Petroc (Studies in Celtic History; 19), Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 41:

Cabbage, however, has enjoyed unlikely success as a hypocorism, a usage that dates back to the mid nineteenth century; this usage arose as a direct translation of chou, which French lovers had been calling each other for a long time: "Oh, mon petit chou"—"Oh, my little cabbage."

2003, Mark Steven Morton, “My Swete Hurle Bawsy: Terms of Endearment”, in The Lover’s Tongue: A Merry Romp through the Language of Love and Sex, Toronto, Ont.: Insomniac Press, →ISBN, page 52:

Another example are hypocorisms (nicknames based on personal names) derived via language-specific word formation processes. In Amadeus, the German hypocorisms for Wolfgang and Constanze, Wolfie and Stanzi, can pass as German as well as American English – however, the latter hearing is encouraged by Constanze's pronunciation of the first vowel in Wolfie as [ˈvʊlfɪ] rather than German [ˈvɒlfɪ].

2008, Lukas Bleichenbacher, “Replacement Strategies”, in Multilingualism in the Movies: Hollywood Characters and Their Language Choices (Schweizer Anglistische Arbeiten [Swiss Studies in English]), Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg: Francke Verlag, →ISBN, →ISSN, section 5.3 (Evocation), page 66:

Barney's own name is a hypocorism of Barnabas or Barnaby; Ted is a clipping of Theodore, which commonly becomes the hypocorism Teddy; among Barney's many sexual encounters were Wendy, Abby, and Jenny, each a hypocorism of original names Gwendolyn, Abigail, and Jennifer.

2016, Jessie Sams, “Word Formation in HIMYM [How I Met Your Mother]”, in Kristy Beers Fägersten, editor, Watching TV with a Linguist, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 172:

(countable) A term of endearment; a hypocoristic, a pet name.


pluperfect tense

en-noun

pluperfect tense (plural pluperfect tenses)

From Latin plus (“more”) + perfectus (“perfect”).

(grammar, of a verb) Tense of a verb used when referring to something that happened before a past setting or the imperfect; formed in English by adding had before the past participle of a verb, or by adding had been before the present participle of the verb.


preantepenultimate

Nominal sense attested since 1746; adjectival sense attested since 1791: pre- + antepenultimate.

Accent the Preantepenultimate.

1830, John Walker, A Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names, New York, N.Y.: J.F. Dove, page 169:

(chiefly phonetics, obsolete, rare) preantepenult


preantepenultimate

…PWs with preantepenultimate and even fifth-but-last stress occur,…

2010, Editors Martin Maiden, John Charles Smith, Adam Ledgeway, The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages: Volume 1, Structures, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 82:

First or Preantepenultimate Milk-molar; Second or Ante- penultimate Milk-molar.

1874, Andrew Leith Adams, On the Dentition and Osteology of the Maltese Fossil Elephants, Zoological Society of London, page 10:

(chiefly phonetics and biology) Three before the end; fourth to last.


vocative case

(grammar) case of address, case used for a noun identifying the person or thing being addressed. It corresponds to the archaic English particle "O" as used in solemn or poetic address e.g.: Hear me, O Albion! Languages that regularly employ the vocative include Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Czech, Georgian, Greek, Hawaiian, Hindi-Urdu, Irish, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ojibwe, Polish, Romanian, Ruthenian/Rusyn, Sanskrit, Scottish Gaelic, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Tamil and Ukrainian.


nominal

→ Afrikaans: nominaal

From the Middle English nominalle (“of nouns”), borrowed from Latin nōminālis (“of names”), from nōmen (“name”).

a nominal difference

1856 February, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Oliver Goldsmith, republished in 1865, The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green, page 300,
At Edinburgh he passed eighteen months in nominal attendance on lectures, and picked up some superficial information about chemistry and natural history.

In contrast to the traditionally conservative or libertarian ethos of the entrepreneurial class, the oligarchy is increasingly allied with the nominally populist Democratic Party and its regulatory agenda.

2013 October 5, Joel Kotkin, “California’s New Feudalism Benefits a Few at the Expense of the Multitude”, in The Daily Beast:

This sentence contains a nominal phrase.

(grammar) Of or relating to a noun or word group that functions as a noun.


nominal

This sentence contains two nominals.

(grammar) A noun or word group that functions as part of a noun phrase.

A considerable number of derived nominals, especially thematic nouns, also exhibited o-grade roots.

2006, Donald Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 12:

(grammar) A part of speech that shares features with nouns and adjectives. (Depending on the language, it may comprise nouns, adjectives, possibly numerals, pronouns, and participles.)

névszó

the Hungarian terms is actually broader, corresponding to Nomen


pluperfect

Shortening of plusquamperfect, from Latin plusquamperfectum (“more than perfect”), from plus (“more”) + quam (“than”) + perfectum, neuter singular of perfectus (“achieved; finished; perfected”).

bor

(grammar) Pertaining to action completed before another action or event in the past, past perfect.


instrumental case

en-noun

instrumental case (plural instrumental cases)

(grammar) A noun case used to express means or agency—and is generally indicated in English by by or with with the objective. Languages that use the instrumental case include Armenian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Dyirbal, Georgian, Latvian, Slovene, Polish, Ukrainian, Quechua, Russian, Assamese, Turkish and Sanskrit. Extinct languages that used the instrumental case include Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German.


substrate

(linguistics) A language that is replaced in a population by another language and that influences the language imposed on its speakers.


prepositional case

prepositional case (plural prepositional cases)

(grammar) noun case serving as object of a preposition. Prepositions that often govern the prepositional case include "about", "in", "on", and "near". Russian is an example of a language that uses the prepositional case.

ме́сны скло́н m (mjésny sklón, literally “locative case”)


construct

en-verb

construct (third-person singular simple present constructs, present participle constructing, simple past and past participle constructed)

constructs (present singular third-person)
constructing (participle present)
constructed (participle past)
constructed (past)

Borrowed from Latin cōnstrūctus, from cōnstruō (“to heap together”), from com- (“together”) + struō (“I heap up, pile”). Doublet of construe.

A sentence may be constructed with a subject, verb and object.

The Vietnam War films are forms of memory that function to provide collective rememberings, to construct history, and to subsume within them the experience of the veterans.

(transitive, grammar) To build (a sentence, an argument, etc.) by arranging words or ideas.


isogloss

From iso- + gloss, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἴσος (ísos, “equal”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wi- (“to separate”)) + γλῶσσα (glôssa, “tongue; language”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *glōgʰs).

der

Bloch thinks (and we agree with him) that details of isogloss will probably not bear out this kind of grouping.

1921, The Calcutta Review, Calcutta: University of Calcutta, →OCLC, page 285:

There was also a tendency to treat transitive verbs passively, as in Hurrian and Urarṭian; it must, however, be emphasized that this phenomenon may also be considered as an isogloss rather than as an indication of genetic relationship.

1970, W[illiam] F[oxwell] Albright, T[homas] O[den] Lambdin, “The Evidence of Language”, in I[orwerth] E[iddon] S[tephen] Edwards, C[yril] J[ohn] Gadd, N[icholas] G[eoffrey] L[emprière] Hammond, editors, The Cambridge Ancient History, 3rd edition, volumes I, part 1 (Prolegomena and Prehistory), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 2000, →ISBN, section IV (Sumerian, Hurrian, Urarṭian, Elamite), page 154:

The convergence of multiple isoglosses on a map, a "bundle", indicates a boundary between one regional dialect and another.

2005, Brian D. Joseph, Carol G. Preston, Dennis R. Preston, editors, Language Diversity in Michigan and Ohio: Towards Two State Linguistic Profiles, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Caravan Books, →ISBN, page 29:

(linguistics) A line on a map indicating the geographical boundaries of a linguistic feature.

isoglos

line indicating geographical boundaries of a linguistic feature


exponent

From Latin expōnēns, present participle of expōnō (“to expose; to exhibit, display, set out; to explain”), from ex- (“out, away”) + pōnō (“to lay, place, put”).

However, there have been no examples presented of gender systems where the plain n triggers one exponent for gender agreement, and the male and female ns together trigger a different exponent.

2015, Ruth Kramer, The Morphosyntax of Gender, page 83:

(linguistics) A manifestation of a morphosyntactic property.


iambic

en-adj

iambic (comparative more iambic, superlative most iambic)

more iambic (comparative)
most iambic (superlative)

From Middle French ïambique, from Late Latin iambicus, from Ancient Greek ἰαμβικός (iambikós), from ἴαμβος (íambos) + -ικός (-ikós).

[J]ust before the rhythm becomes iambic, there will be a point reached at which the rhythm can hardly be said to be more iambic than it is trochaic.

1908, Frank Gilbert Bruner, The Hearing of Primitive Peoples, page 17:

(prosody) Consisting of iambs (metrical feet with an unstressed-stressed pattern) or characterized by their predominance. [from 16th c.]

iàmbic

consisting of iambs or characterized by their predominance


iambic

(prosody) An iamb; a line or group of lines of iambs.


phonics

Phonics has gone in and out of style for decades, and the current conflict over how to teach reading is only the latest in a tug-of-war that dates to the 19th century.

2020 February 15, Dana Goldstein, “An Old and Contested Solution to Boost Reading Scores: Phonics”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

en:method of teaching reading with sound-spelling correspondence

A method of teaching elementary reading based on the phonetic interpretation of normal spelling.


prospective

From Middle French prospectif, from Late Latin prospectivus. See more at English prospect.

What some other languages convey with prospective aspect, English conveys with expressions like going to drive the car home.

(grammar) Indicating grammatically an activity about to begin.


production

en-noun

production (countable and uncountable, plural productions)

→ Japanese: プロダクション (purodakushon)

/pɹəˈdʌkʃən/

From Middle English produccioun, from Old French production, from Latin prōductiō, prōductiōnem (“a lengthening, prolonging”). See produce.

der

(linguistics) Writing viewed as the process of producing a text in any medium (written, spoken, signed, multimodal, nonverbal), consisting of several steps such as conceptualization, formulation, expression and revision.


mia

(classical studies) An ancient bluffing game played with dice.


evidential

From Medieval Latin ēvidentiālis, from Latin ēvidentia + -ālis.

(linguistics) A syntactic element (affix, clitic, or particle) that indicates evidentiality.


alveolar

(phonetics) Formed with the tongue touching or approaching the inner ridge of the gums of the upper front teeth.

لِثَوِيّ

formed with the tongue touching or approaching the ridge behind the upper teeth


cacoepy

From Ancient Greek κακός (kakós, “bad”) + ἔπος (épos, “word”) + -ία (-ía, “-y”).


breaking

en-noun

breaking (countable and uncountable, plural breakings)

(linguistics) A change of a vowel to a diphthong.


anaptyxis

anaptyxis (countable and uncountable, plural anaptyxes)

Learned borrowing from New Latin anaptyxis, from Ancient Greek ἀνάπτυξις (anáptuxis).

lbor

(phonetics) The epenthesis (insertion) of a vowel.


scope

en-noun

scope (countable and uncountable, plural scopes)

→ Irish: scóp

From Italian scopo (“purpose”), from Latin scopus (“target”), from Ancient Greek σκοπός (skopós), from σκέπτομαι (sképtomai), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-. Etymologically related to skeptic and spectrum.

the scope of an adverb

(linguistics) The region of an utterance to which some modifying element applies.


orthoepy

orthoepy (countable and uncountable, plural orthoepies)

/ˈɔː.θəʊˌiː.pi/

/ˈɔː.θəʊˌɛ.pi/

/ˈɔː.θəʊ.ɨ.pi/

/ɔː.ˈθəʊ.ɨ.pi/

/ˈɔɹ.θoʊˌɛ.pi/

From Ancient Greek ὀρθοέπεια (orthoépeia), possibly via Latin orthoepia, from Ancient Greek ὀρθός (orthós, “correct”) + ἔπος (épos, “word”) + -ία (-ía, “-y”).

Synonym of phonology: the study of pronunciation.


past historic tense

(grammar) A tense used in some languages (such as French and Italian) in narrative, and in spoken language primarily when reading narrative or in storytelling, for completed actions in the past or in speaking of the dead. It is semantically the same as the simple past in many languages, including English.


intensifier

From intensify + -er; from the most common use of such terms, to intensify an adjective.

(linguistics) A word or particle that heightens the intensity of meaning of a term.

intensifikaattori

a word or particle that heightens the intensity of meaning of a term


orthography

orthography (countable and uncountable, plural orthographies)

/ɔːˈθɒɡɹəfi/

/ɔɹˈθɑɡɹəfi/

The noun is derived from Late Middle English ortografie, ortographie (“spelling”) [and other forms], and then either:
* from Anglo-Norman ortografie, Middle French orthographie, ortografie, ortographie (“correct spelling; orthographic projection”) (compare Old French ortografie; modern French orthographe (“spelling, orthography”), orthographie (“orthographic project, orthography”)); or
* from their etymon Latin orthographia (“correct spelling; building elevation”), from Koine Greek ὀρθογραφία (orthographía, “correct spelling”), from Ancient Greek ορθο- (ortho-, prefix meaning ‘right, proper; upright’) (from ὀρθός (orthós, “straight; erect, upright; correct, true”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃erdʰ- (“to grow, increase; high; upright”)) + -γραφίᾱ (-graphíā, suffix meaning ‘drawing; writing’) (from γρᾰ́φω (gráphō, “to cut into, scratch; to write”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve”)).
The English word is analyzable as ortho- (prefix meaning ‘proper, right; straight’) + -graphy (suffix denoting something written or otherwise represented in a specified manner, or about a specified subject). The verb is derived from the noun. First use appears before c. 1460.
cognates
* Catalan ortografia
* Italian ortografia
* Portuguese ortografia, orthografia (obsolete)
* Spanish ortografía

affix

The Licencer indeed, as his autority novv ſtands, may licence much; but if theſe Greek Orthographies vvere of his licencing; the boyes at School might reck'n vvith him at his Grammar.

1645 March 14 (Gregorian calendar), J[ohn] M[ilton], Colasterion: A Reply to a Nameles Answer against The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. […], [London?: s.n.], →OCLC, page 3:

Then the Bay tried me vvith a ſecond VVord, much harder to be pronounced; but reducing it to the Engliſh Orthography, may be ſpelt thus, Houyhnhnms.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Sets out as Captain of a Ship. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 170:

The Eisteddvod has not, however, been altogether inactive,—we are indebted to it for presenting us with several excellent prize compositions, both in poetry and prose; and as the subject of one of its essays, viz. that on Welsh orthography, is of peculiar interest to the Welsh writers of the present day, I have thought proper to select it for my present treatise, that I might offer a few observations upon it, and so become instrumental, if possible, in establishing the orthography of our language.

1829, John Jones, A Defence of the Reformed System of Welsh Orthography: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] S. Collingwood, printer to the University, for the author, →OCLC, page 4:

In the colonial era there were two major competing orthographies for rendering words from Indian languages, the ‘Jones system,’ based on the spelling in the original language and requiring a substantial application of diacritics, and the ‘Gilchrist system,’ based on pronunciation and requiring less diacritics.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 491:

(countable) A method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols; spelling.

drejtshkrim

method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols — see also spelling

(countable, more broadly) A set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, capitalization, emphasis, hyphenation, punctuation, and word breaks.

правопи́с

Not only the ſeveral Towns and Countries^([sic – meaning Counties]) of England, have a different way of pronouncing, but even here in London they clip their Words after one Manner about the Court, another in the City, and a third in the Suburbs; and in a few Years, it is probable, will all differ from themſelves, as Fancy or Faſhion ſhall direct: All which, reduced to Writing, would entirely confound Orthography.

1712 March 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar), J[onathan] Swift, A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue; […], 2nd edition, London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], published 1712, →OCLC, page 23:

(uncountable) The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words; the study of spelling.

إِمْلَاء

I abhor ſuch phanaticall phantaſms, ſuch inſociable and poynt deuiſe companions, ſuch rackers of ortagriphie, as to ſpeake dout fine, vvhen he ſhould ſay doubt; […]

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 136, column 1:

[A]nother [critic] has vovvde to get the conſumption of the lungues, or to leue to poſteritie the true orthography and pronunciation of laughing: […]

1604 (date written), Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], Parasitaster, or The Fawne, […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for W[illiam] C[otton], published 1606, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i:

If this Letter fail either in point of Orthography or Style, you muſt impute the firſt to the tumbling potſure my Body vvas in at the vvriting hereof, being a Shipboard, the ſecond the muddineſs of my Brain, vvhich like Lees in a narrovv Veſſel, hath been ſhaken at Sea in divers Tempeſts near upon forty days, […]

1621 May 15 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “XXVII. To My Brother Dr. Howel, from a Shipboard before Venice.”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, section I, page 37:

As this VVay of booriſh Speech is in Ireland called the Brogue upon the Tongue, ſo here 'tis named Jouring, It is not poſſible to explain this fully by VVriting, becauſe the Difference is not ſo much in the Orthography, as in the Tone and Accent; […]

1742, [Daniel Defoe], “Letter VI. Containing a Description of the County of Dorset, Part of Somersetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, &c.”, in A Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] J[ohn] Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 303:

This word [plaid] is erroneously pronounced plad, the proper pronunciation (according to the Scotch) is shewn by the Orthography.

1807, George Gordon, Lord Byron, “[Fugitive Pieces.] Lachin y. Gair.”, in Hours of Idleness, a Series of Poems, Original and Translated, Newark [Nottinghamshire?]: […] S. and J. Ridge; […], →OCLC, footnote *, page 130:

(uncountable) Correct spelling according to established usage; also (obsolete) pronunciation according to the spelling of a word.

ortografi

correct spelling according to established usage


modifier

(grammar) A word, phrase, or clause that limits or qualifies the sense of another word or phrase.

修飾語

grammar: qualifying word, clause or phrase

jelzői vagy szabad határozói kifejezés (szerepű)


epicene

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-epicene.wav

From Late Middle English epicene, epicen, epicin, epcyn, episcen, epycen, epycene, epycyn, ypsen (“(grammar) having only one form for masculine and feminine gender, common”), from Late Latin epicoenos, epicoenus (“of a noun: applicable to either males or females”), Latin epicoenon (“noun applicable to either males or females; grammatical gender of such nouns”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίκοινος (epíkoinos, “common to many people, things, etc.; promiscuous, sluttish”) (compare γένος ἐπίκοινον (génos epíkoinon, “common gender”)), from ἐπι- (epi-, prefix meaning ‘on, upon; on top of; all over’) + κοινός (koinós, “common; general, public”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, near, with”) + *-yós (suffix forming adjectives from noun stems)).

refn

From the collection of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany.

der

Q. How will you diſtinguiſh the Maſculine hic from the Epicene hic, and the Feminine hæc from the Epicene hæc? / A. That word that hath hic before it, and is onely male, is the Maſculine gender: but if it be both male and female, then it is the Epicene Gender: and ſo hæc before a female, is feminine, but hæc before a word that contains under it both ſexes, is Epicene.

1665, Ch[arles] Hoole, “Of a Noun”, in The Terminations and Examples of the Declensions and Conjugations: […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Printed by John Field, printer to the University, →OCLC, page 55:

Epicene nouns are equally misunderstood: they are of one gender only. These, like the common, represent under one word each member of a pair of animals—the male and the female: thus passer—a sparrow—denotes the cock sparrow, as well as the hen: but in the use of these words there is no variation of the gender: they are invariably used in one gender only: thus passer is of the masculine gender: and though used for the purpose of representing the hen-sparrow; still every adjective or participle connected with it must be used in the masculine gender: [...] In short, epicene nouns differ from the common in this only; that they do not vary their genders in accordance with nature: they invariably keep to one gender.

1843, Richard Haynes, “Of Nouns Substantive”, in A Commentary on the Eton Latin-grammar. … Orthography and Etymology, Bristol: Printed and published for the author, by John Wright & Co., […], →OCLC, part II (Etymology), section 3 (Genders of Nouns Substantive), page 9:

In many names of animals, the same word with the same gender is used for both sexes: ἡ ἁλὠπηξ the fox, male or female. These are said to be epicoene.

1862, James Hadley, “Nouns”, in A Greek Grammar, for Schools and Colleges, New York, N.Y., London: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, part second (Inflection), paragraph 118, page 32:

Ovis, therefore, is epicene, and, moreover, a true epicene, like volpes, aquila, merula, avis, panthera, corvus, and others. It is epicene, because it has just been proved to be the generic term for sheep without thought for sex, to have only one grammatical gender, feminine, and yet, as a true epicene, to be carried to its logical development, so that on a few occasions, such as we have encountered in Ovid, and in [Marcus Terentius] Varro, it is employed strictly of the male.

1917, Horace Wetherill Wright, The Sacra Idulia in Ovid’s Fasti: A Study of Ovid’s Credibility in Regard to the Place and the Victim of this Sacrifice, Newark, N.J.: The Essex Press, →OCLC, page 45:

(linguistics) Of or relating to a class of Greek and Latin nouns that may refer to males or females but have a fixed grammatical gender (feminine, masculine, neuter, etc.).

ἐπίκοινος

of or relating to a class of Greek and Latin nouns that may refer to males or females but have a fixed grammatical gender

In Telugu some confusion has been introduced between the epicene sign of plurality 'ar-u', and the neuter 'lu.' [...] Thus the Telugu demonstrative pronoun 'vâr-u,' they (the plural of 'vâḍu,' he), corresponding to the Canarese 'avar-u,' exhibits the regular epicene plural; while 'magaḍu,' a husband (in Tamil 'magan'), takes for its plural not 'magaru,' but 'magalu;' [...]

1856, R[obert] Caldwell, “Section III. The Noun.”, in A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, London, Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate […], →OCLC, part I (Gender and Number), section 1 (Gender), page 189:

(linguistics) Of or relating to nouns or pronouns in any language that have a single form for male and female referents.

epicè

of or relating to nouns or pronouns in any language that have a single form for male and female referents