Example sentences for: back-formation

How can you use “back-formation” in a sentence? Here are some example sentences to help you improve your vocabulary:

  • The alteration of tsk to tisk is like the back-formation of certain words.

  • Nowadays, of course, the overbriefed newcomers are orientated , a longer verb that sounds suspiciously like a back-formation from orientation . Similarly, derivate looks like an up-and-coming contender for derive . Proceeding analogously, a classmate of mine in junior high school once talked of improvisating, but somehow her neologism never caught on.

  • Oxford would probably call that an ignorant back-formation, as it does the useful and unambiguous enthuse .

  • In general, back-formation of new singulars from plurals is a sign that the plural is textually more frequent than the singular (indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary lists only frijoles and no singular form whatsoever for English).

  • If houses sink into the earth, the cause is no longer subsidence , pronounced SUB'sidence, it is subSIDE\?\ence, an obvious back-formation from the verb subside .


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