Stupefication

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/29/2011 06:11 AM, Randy Alexander wrote:

>In 4th grade at a Catholic school, I used "stupefication" in a class
>assignment, ignorant to the fact that it should have been
>"stupefaction".  The seminarian teaching the class held up my paper
>and laughed at me (what a jerk), offering no explanation as to the
>reason behind this strange morphological form.

Just checking ... the OED does have "stupification", rare, one quotation, 1650.


>Google tells me I'm not the only one using this word -- it's even in
>many headlines.
>
>But I still have no idea what is going on morphologically.  Anyone
>care to elucidate?

Yes, please.  E.g.:
stupefy -> stupefaction (more commonly)
reify -> reification

Joel


>--
>Randy Alexander
>Xiamen, China
>Blogs:
>Manchu studies: http://www.sinoglot.com/manchu
>Chinese characters: http://www.sinoglot.com/yuwen
>Language in China (group blog): http://www.sinoglot.com/blog
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org