Clipped compound

In linguistics, a clipped compound is a word produced from a compound word by reducing its parts while retaining the meaning of the original compound.[1] It is a special case of word formation called clipping.

Clipped compounds are common in various slang and jargon vocabularies.[1]

A clipped compound word is actually a type of blend word. Like other blends, clipped compounds may be made of two or more components. However, a blend may have a meaning independent of its components' meanings (e.g., motel <— motor + hotel), while in a clipped compound the components already serve the function of producing a compound meaning (for instance, pulmotor <— pulmonary + motor).[1] In addition, a clipped compound may drop one component completely: hard instead of hard labor, or mother for motherfucker (a process called ellipsis).[1] Laurie Bauer suggests the following distinction: If the word has compound stress, it is a clipped compound; if it has single-word stress, it is a blend.[2]

The meaning of clipped compound may overlap with that of acronym, especially with compounds made of short components.

In the Russian language, a clipped compound may acquire one or more extra suffixes that indicate the intended grammatical form of the formed word. In particular, the suffix -k is commonly used, for example, in askorbinka (from askorbinovaya kislota (i.e., ascorbic acid)).[3]

In Japanese, clipped compounds are very commonly used to shorten long, either coined or wholly borrowed, compounds (see also Japanese phonology and transcription into Japanese). For instance, a word processor (ワードプロセッサ wādo purosessa) may be referred to as simply ワープロ wāpuro, sexual harassment (セクシャルハラスメント sekusharu harasumento) as セクハラ sekuhara, the program Clip Studio Paint (クリップスタジオペイント Kurippu Sutajio Peinto) as クリスタ Kurisuta, the video game series Monster Hunter (モンスターハンター Monsutā Hantā) as モンハン Monhan, the United Nations (国際連合 Kokusai Rengō) as 国連 Kokuren, and the Soviet Union (ソビエト連邦 Sobieto Renpō) as ソ連 Soren.