# Libfix

In linguistics, a libfix is a productive bound morpheme affix created by rebracketing and back-formation, often a generalization of a component of a blended or portmanteau word. For example, walkathon was coined in 1932 as a blend of walk and marathon, and soon thereafter the -athon part was reinterpreted as a libfix meaning "event or activity lasting a long time or involving a great deal of something". Words formed with this suffix include talkathon, telethon, hackathon, and so on. Affixes whose morpheme boundaries are etymologically based, and which are used in their original sense, are not libfixes. Libfixes often utilise epenthesis, as in the example of -holism and -holic which are joined with consonant-final segments via the vowel ⟨a⟩, creating work-a-holism or sex-a-holism.

## History

Splinters were defined by Berman in 1961 as non-morphemic word fragments. This includes not just libfixes, but also word fragments which become words, like burger (< hamburger), flu (< influenza), and net (< network).
The name libfix was coined by Arnold Zwicky in 2010 as a blend of "liberated" and "affix" specifically for splinters used as productive morphemes.

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

    things 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
       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)
       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

##### -(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

    things 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

##### -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

##### 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; things related to helicopters
       helibus; helipad, heliport, helidrome, heliborne

##### petro- < petroleum, not rock

    things 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