the history of Greco-Roman hybridizing

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

the correspondent who asked about Greco-Roman hybrids is enjoying the
playful suggestions people have made, but now wonders how recent the
phenomenon is.  anything before 1892, when "homosexual" was devised?

meanwhile, another correspondent did a search of various sources, and
found "hybrid" several places, and nothing else.  the OED says, under
"hybrid":

2. transf. and fig.    a. Anything derived from heterogeneous
sources, or composed of different or incongruous elements; in Philol.
a composite word formed of elements belonging to different languages.

with examples:

  1879 MORRIS Eng. Accid. 39 Sometimes we find English and Romance
elements compounded. These are termed Hybrids. 1895 F. HALL Two
Trifles 28 The ancient Romans would not have endured scientistes or
scientista, as a new type of hybrid.

the first of these is not Greco-Roman.  the second is a Latin stem
with a Greek affix, not two stems, with one from each language, like
my original examples.

arnold

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