Bondage and Figuring

Here’s a great question we got in Ask Figaro:

Hi Fig,
My sister, a college classmate of yours, recommended I ask you about the rhetorical device of attaching a suffix to a word or word fragment to associate it with a familiar incident, condition, etc. The ones I can think of are: “-gate”, from Watergate, to denote a scandal (ie. Nannygate, Contragate, fajitagate) and “-holic”, from alcoholic, to denote addiction (ie. chocoholic, workaholic). Is there a name for these and can you think of any others?
Thanks very much,
Doug

Dear Doug,

Your sister was our college classmate? As an alumnaholic, we’re curious. She must be brilliant, because we can indeed answer your question. The name for those gates and holics is bound morpheme.  A morpheme is language’s version of an atom, a building block of meaning. A bound morpheme is affixed to a word to change its meaning. Hence Irangate, Monicagate, and shopaholic.

Warning: a morpheme can be addictive. See this.  Still want to see more?

• “Tron”: you got your electron, your cyclotron, and your robot-like waitron (called “server” in finer restaurants).
• “Ize”: energize, idionize, idolize
• “Uber”: replaces “super” or “ultra” for far more annoying effect
• “Athon”: walkathon, eatathon, shopathon

Now, did you really mean it when you wrote in a separate email that you’d buy copies of Thank You for Arguing for every family member if Figaro could answer your question? Well, we think that’s just uber!

Fig.

Comments

[Brooks]

Don't forget "-meister" to indicate responsibility.

[Figaro]

Ooh, good one, Brooks! OK, Figarists, what else is missing?

Fig.

[Doug]

Fig, you ROCK! How about these bound morphemes :

"-a-rama": seems to connote large size, bowl-a-rama

"-bot": particular type of robot as in "fembot" of Austin Powers reknown

I will buy your book and if I like I'll buy more.

[Figaro]

You rock right back, Doug. And Merry Christmas!

[Doug]

How about "-matic" for performed mechanically? I'd like to find more morphemes derived from specific words ("Watergate", "alcoholic", perhaps "automatic").

[Figaro]

Indeed, the bound morpheme you're getting at is a particular kind not described by the classic rhetoricians. Maybe we should come up with our own term. Hidebound morpheme? Leaping bound morpheme? Bound and disciplined.

Geez,I have to get back to work.

Fig.

[Figaro]

Indeed, the bound morpheme you're getting at is a particular kind not described by the classic rhetoricians. Maybe we should come up with our own term. Hidebound morpheme? Leaping bound morpheme? Bound and disciplined?

Geez,I have to get back to work.

Fig.

[Terri]

This is so great thanks for sharing it!

[Lynn]

Bound morphemes. Ahh ... like "Manhattan-henge" -- the sun setting in perfect alignment with the grid of Manhattan's streets (spotted on newscientist.com)

[Erin]

-gate is a candidate for snowclone-hood because of its metaphorical nature--it is meant to link the thing it is affixed to to the original Watergate scandal, to make it seem as serious/scandalous/etc. as that incident. And of course, it's idiomatic--the meaning of this -gate has nothing to do with fences or doors.

[Amp]

I realized, whilst thinking of a drink, another highly abused morpheme, -tini: to describe various "customised" martini blends.
Apple-tini
Pineapple-tini
etc.

[Dan]

Over at Omniglot - the blog, there's a post on morpheme morphings like this. It's not exactly classical, but I think the word Doug is looking for is "cran-morph," a specific class of words using bound morphemes.

http://www.omniglot.com/blog/2006/07/03/cran-morphing