Definition:
In morphology, a fragment of a word used in the formation of new words.
Examples of splinters include -gate (as in the recent coinages Nipplegate, Bigotgate, Foreclosuregate) and -holic (shopaholic, chocoholic, textaholic).
"The splinter is formally identical to a clipping, but whereas clippings function as full words, splinters do not" (Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics, 2009).
See also:
Etymology:
Term coined by the linguist J.M. Berman in "Contribution on Blending" in Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 1961Examples and Observations:
- "Splinters arise through the process of blending . . .. Thus, -nomics in Thatchernomics is a splinter, recurring in Reaganomics, Rogernomics, Nixonomics, etc.
"Splinters may have any one of three possible fates. They may disappear. I suspect that this is what has happened to -teria (a splinter from cafeteria which had a brief flourishing in words like washeteria but now seem to have become unavailable). They may become productive affixes. This appears to be what has happened with -nomics, cited above, although it is of very low productivity. They may become independent words. This is what has happened to burger, originally a reanalysis from hamburger which shows up in beefburger and cheeseburger.
"Since splinters may turn into affixes or words, we appear to have a situation where it is not clear whether new forms using the splinter will be derivatives or compounds. The -scape which emerged from landscape might be a case in point, though the Oxford English Dictionary lists so many instances of its being used independently that there can be little doubt as to its status as a word now. On the other hand, if we believe the Oxford English Dictionary, -cade (from cavalcade into motorcade) has become an affix."
(Laurie Bauer, "The Borderline Between Derivation and Compounding," in Morphology and Its Demarcations, ed. by Wolfgang U. Dressler. John Benjamins, 2005) - "[Blends] may be composed of two elements called splinters (ballute from balloon and parachute), or only one element is a splinter and the other element is a full word (escalift from escalator and lift, needcessity from need and necessity). . . . A special punning effect is achieved when one constituent echoes in some way the word or word-fragment it replaces, for example, foolosopher echoing philosopher, or fakesimile, echoing facsimile."
("Valerie Adams" in English Word-Formation: A History of Research, 1960-1995, by Pavol Štekauer. Narr, 2000)
