Libfix

Criticism

Some of these formations have been considered barbarisms by prescriptive writers on style, though other writers have praised them. Speaking of the -tron suffix, a philologist commented:

I once heard an unkind critic allude disparagingly to these neologisms as dog-Greek. To a lover of the language of Sophocles and Plato these recent coinages may indeed appear to be Greek debased. More appropriately, perhaps, they might be termed lion-Greek or chameleon-Greek. They are Neo-Hellenic in the genuine Renaissance tradition.

Examples

Each example gives the affix, the source word(s) from which it was formed, the meaning, and examples.

This list does not include:

• affixes based on English words like tech or burger used literally, even if they are shortened forms, in this case, for technology and hamburger;
• affixes which are aligned in form and meaning with their etymological source, like -(o)cracy or -orama in cyclorama and diorama from ὅραμα 'spectacle'; motorama is a portmanteau of motor and orama, not a compound of mot- and -orama;
• words which have been separated from phrases, e.g. fu from kung fu.

English

Suffixes

-(i)ana < Virgiliana (Latin, then French)

related to a given person, place, period

Churchilliana, Americana, Victoriana

-ase < diastase

an enzyme

lactase, polymerase

-cation < vacation

kinds of vacation

staycation, girlcation

-copter < helicopter

having a spinning rotor allowing for flight

gyrocopter

-core < hardcore

aesthetic, hardcore punk derivatives, hardcore techno derivatives

speedcore, grindcore, cottagecore, bardcore

-dar < radar

the skill of detecting qualities or things

gaydar, humordar, Jewdar

-erati < literati

groups of people with common interests

digerati, glitterati

-flation < inflation

economic inflation in a particular field

tipflation, stagflation, shrinkflation

-gasm < orgasm

an intensely pleasurable experience

foodgasm, cargasm, shoegasm, nerdgasm

-gate < Watergate

a scandal

gamergate, troopergate; see List of "-gate" scandals

-(m)(a)geddon < Armageddon

major disasters (usually facetious)

carmageddon, snowgeddon, Irmageddon

-(a)holic, -(a)holism < Alcoholism

addict(ed)

shopaholic, workaholic, sexaholic; see English terms suffixed with -holic

-kini < bikini

type of bathing suit

burkini, monokini, tankini, mankini

-(i/e/a/∅)licious < delicious

a high degree of some property (usually jocular)

bootylicious, babelicious, yummalicious, sacrilicious, crunchalicious

-(o)nomics < economics

an economic policy or philosophy

Reaganomics, freakonomics

-ola < pianola, tombola (?)

used to form commercial products; later, for forms of bribery

Victrola, moviola, shinola; payola, plugola

-oma < carcinoma, sarcoma (-ομα is a suffix for deverbal nouns)

a kind of tumor, swelling, or cancer

melanoma, adenoma, papilloma

-ome, -omics < genome, genomics, trichome

a map of a biological system; and other uses in biology

connectome, proteome; biome, rhizome, vacuome

-on < electron (see also -tron)

an elementary particle or quasiparticle

proton, neutron, meson, phonon, etc.; see List of particles

-preneur < entrepreneur

an entrepreneur in some domain

intrapreneur, ecopreneur, mompreneur

-pocalypse < apocalypse

a catastrophic event

snowpocalypse, robopocalypse, beepocalypse

-tard < retard, a pejorative term for a mentally disabled or stupid person

people who are foolish or stupid; pejorative

fucktard, libtard

-(a)thon, -a-thon < marathon

that last a long time or require remarkable endurance

walkathon, telethon, hackathon

-tron < electron

a kind of vacuum tube; a subatomic particle; a device

magnetron; positron; cyclotron

-(n)(i)verse < universe

the collection of all things in a category, or a fictional universe

blogoverse, Twitterverse, Whoniverse

-wich < sandwich

sandwich

fishwich, hamwich, snackwich

-zilla < Godzilla

monstrous, scary, or large things; can function as an augmentative and pejorative

bridezilla, Mozilla

Prefixes

alt- < alternative (usually written with a hyphen)

outside the mainstream

alt-rock, alt-right

crypto- < cryptography

related to cryptocurrency

cryptoasset, cryptobro, cryptocoin, cryptojack, cryptoverse

cyber- < cybernetics

issues or policies related to computers

cyberspace, cybercrime

eco- < ecology

related to the environment, to ecology, or to sustainability

eco-terrorism, eco-nationalism, eco-investing

econo- < economics

related to economics; economical, inexpensive

econometrics (not *economometrics), econophysics; econobox

franken- < Frankenstein

related to “human efforts to interfere with nature”

frankenfood, frankenplant, frankenscience

glut- < gluten, glutamic acid

related to glutamic acid, one of the amino acids

glutamine, glutamate

heli- < helicopter

types of helicopters; related to helicopters

helibus; helipad, heliport, helidrome, heliborne

hyper- < hypertext

related to hypertext

hyperlink, hypermedia

oxy-, oxi- < oxygen, not sharp, acid

related to oxygen

oxytocin, oximeter, oxycodone

petro- < petroleum, not rock

related to petroleum

petrodollar, petrochemical, petrocurrency

syn- < synthetic, synthesizer

synthetic; related to (musical) synthesizers

syngas, synfuel, syncrude, Synclavier

Italian

Suffix

-opoli < Tangentopoli 'Bribesville'

a scandal

Bancopoli, Calciopoli

Portuguese (Brazil)

Suffix

-ão < Mensalão 'Monthly payment-gate'

a scandal

Petrolão, Metrolão, Trensalão