Q: `workaholic'

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Me again.  Is there an accepted name for the slightly peculiar process
in which a piece of a word is somewhat arbitrarily ripped out of it
and then used as a kind of affix for forming new words?
 
I'm thinking of cases like these:
 
alcoholic --> -(o)holic --> workaholic, chocoholic, shopaholic,...
 
Marathon --> -(a)thon --> telethon, bikeathon, danceathon,...
 
panorama --> -(o)rama --> washorama, launderama,...
 
Watergate --> -gate --> Irangate, Contragate, Whitewatergate,...
 
Textbooks usually seem to class this as a variety of blending, but I
doubt that this is reasonable.  We might possibly regard `bikeathon'
as a blend from `bike marathon', but I don't think `workaholic' can
reasonably be regarded as a blend of `work alcoholic'.  I think these
morphs have simply become affixes, but affixes of very odd origin,
since they do not appear to arise from straightforward instances of
either reanalysis or back-formation.  I mean, did anybody ever
suppose that `alcoholic' consisted of `alc-' plus `-oholic'?
 
All suggestions gratefully received.
 
Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
England
 
larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk