Word Play

English is amongst the wordiest languages. Perhaps the wordiest. It boasts of a million plus words. 80% of which are borrowed from other languages. Contrast it with French, which has some 10,000 words. An average educated english-speaking person has a basket of 20,000 words! Although we use about 2000 words a week. Words fall into categories and patterns. I have attempted to put together a list of word classification which, in practice, are easy to identify with and often used, but their nomenclature is not necessarily so.

1. Antonyms: Opposites
2. Synonyms: Reason why Thesaurus is in business.
3. Buzzword: a popular word relating to a particular activity or subject
   1. Calibrate Expectation | Outside the box | Push the envelope | Sea change | Boil the ocean | Cloud Computing | Integrated Marketing
4. Catchword: a popular word relating to a particular idea, class or quality.
   1. Sexy
5. Demonym: word used to refer to one’s origin or country.
   1. Example Parisian, Indian, Egyptian
6. Derivation: a word that comes from another language
7. False friend: a pair of words that sounds similar in 2 languages but have different meanings.
   1. Actual in English and Aktuell (at present) in German
   2. Stanza in Italian means room
   3. Carte (card, menu) in French and cart in English
   4. Adept (proficient) and Adepte (follower) in French
   5. Affluent (wealthy) and Affluent (tributary of a river) in French.
   6. After in German means anus.
   7. Apologie is praise in French
8. Homograph = Homo (similar) + Graph (writing). Words which are written identically but mean and are often pronounced differently.
   1. Bark: Dog | Tree
   2. Beat: with a stick | Music
   3. Axes: plural of both axis and axe.
   4. Compound: Chemical | Playground
   5. Content: ingredients | satisfied
   6. Now that you have got the hang of it try these: Bat | Bow | Coordinates | Bust | Desert | Digest | Discount | Fine | Lead | Minute | Object | Produce | Putting | Refuse | Row | Second | Subject | Tear | Wind | Wound | Lie | Lead | Close | Bear | Bank | Back | Bar | Capture | Change | Conduct | Console | Contest | Converse | Convert | Defect | Foot | Letter | Light | Live | Match | May | Mind | Park | Rock | Rose | Spirit | Transport | Yard | Wave
9. Homophone = Homo (similar) + Phone (Sound). Word pairs with similar pronunciation but different meanings and spellings.
   1. Ad, Add | Eye, I | Aid, Aide | Altar, Alter | Ate, Eight | Bail, Bale | Bare, Bear | Bases, Basis | Blue, Blew | Bread, Bred | Buy, Bye, By | Cent, Sent | Cell, Sell | Days, Daze | Dear, Deer | Die, Dye | Dual, Duel | Elicit, Illicit | Fare, Fair | Fined, Find | Fir , Fur | Flee, Flea | Flour, Flower | For , Four, Fore | Great, Grate | Hear, Here | Hire, Higher | Know, No | Meat, Meet | Pail, Pale | Pair, Pare, Pear | Passed, Past | Plain, Plane | Pore, Pour | Principal, Principle | Raise, Raze, Rays | Roll, Role| Wrap, Rap |Sale, Sail | Seen, Scene | Seem, Seam | Sheer, Shear | Sore, Soar | Vain, Vane | Way, Weigh | Week, Weak | Whether, Weather | Wine, Whine
10. Homonym = Homograph + Homophone. Word pairs that may be similar in spelling and or pronunciation but have different meanings.
11. Legalism: a word or phrase used in law.
12. Loanword: a word borrowed from another language
    1. From French- Café, ennui, déjà vu, faux pas, rouge, cabernet, ballet
    2. From German- wanderlust, kitschy, doppelgänger
    3. From Spanish – aficionado, Taco
    4. From Latin – ad hominem, modus operandi, mea culpa, quid pro quo, alter ego
    5. From Hindi- Jungle, dacoit, loot, chutney, pundit, bungalow, basmati, Guru.
    6. From Italian – Prima donna, fresco, opera, soprano, viola, motto
    7. From Sanskrit – avatar, yoga, karma, mahatma, swastika
    8. From Japanese - geisha, hara kiri, judo, kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, samurai, sumo, sushi, tsunami
13. Monosyllable: a word with one syllable. Example: Yes, No.
14. Polysyllable: a word with two or more syllables.
15. Monepic: One word sentence. Example: Thanks, Welcome, Great.
16. Operative word: the most important word in the sentence.
17. Americanism: word or phrase used in US English.
    1. 24/7 | Deplane | Wait on | Touch base | Physicality | It is what it is | Gotten | Take-out | Bangs | A half hour | Heads up | My Bad | Normalcy | Eaterie | Bi-weekly | Deliverable | Going forward | Reach out to | Where’s it at? | Zee (not Zed) |
    2. PS: People who speak UK English usually cringe at these Americanisms.
18. Anagram: reorganize alphabets in a word to form another word.
    1. Examples: Name, Mean | Mother-in-law, Woman Hitler | Debit Card, Bad Credit | Schoolmaster, The classroom | eleven plus two, twelve plus one | The morse code, here come dots | Snooze alarms, Alas, no more Z’s | The eyes, They see | Hot water, worth tea | Mummy, My mum | Astronomers, No more stars | A decimal point, I’m a dot in place | The Detectives, Detect thieves | Vacation time, I am not active.
19. Portmanteau Word: when meaning and sound of two words is combined to form one word.
    1. Examples: Smoke + Fog = Smog | Motor + Hotel = Motel | Advertisement + Editorial = Advertorial | Wiki + Encyclopedia = Wikipedia | Permanent + Freelance = Permalance | Lion + Tiger = Liger | Microcomputers + Software = Microsoft | Vertical + Horizon = Verizon | Brad Pitt + Angelina Jolie = Brangelina | Bold + Audacious = Bodacious | Chill + Relax = Chillax | Coca-Cola + Colonization = Cocacolonization | Education + Entertainment = Edutainment | Friend + Enemy = Frenemy | Screen + Teenager = Screenager | Netocracy = Internet + Aristocracy |
    2. Now you know how we got : Infotainment | Metrosexual | Shopaholic | Brunch
20. Weasel Word: words used in an ambiguous manner to make an impression but are not the whole truth, often used in politics and advertisement. (Refer to other advertising tactics.)
    1. Sale up to 50%.
    2. She has been linked with him. How, what, when?
    3. Some argue that… or Many claimed that…neither are quantified
21. Wordoid: to coin a new word for a product or an idea. Portmanteau words are an example. Wordroid site can help you christen your business and get a domain.
22. Anglicism: loanwords from English. Several examples here.
23. Archaism: An old word or phrase that is not used anymore.
    1. Examples: Thy | Thou | Thee | Thine
24. Superordinate: an umbrella word that describes a category or class of things
    1. Examples: Vegetables, Colors, Fruits, Insects, Vehicles
    2. Animal is the superordinate for cat, dog, tiger, cow etc
25. Malapropism: swapping a similar sounding word, incorrectly.
    1. Example: Affect, Effect
26. Nonce word: a word coined for a specific nonce (occasion). Once it is accepted in common parlance it is neologism.
27. Chiasmus: [kahy-az-muh s] Some eat to live others live to eat. Sounds familiar? It is a Chiasmus a sentence where a phrase/word/meaning is repeated in reverse order. The structure to look out for is patterns such as- A B B A.
    1. "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy
    2. "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." (William Shakespeare, Macbeth )
    3. "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good." (Samuel Johnson)
    4.  Never let a fool kiss you--or a kiss fool you.
    5. It is not how old you are but how you are old
    6. You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.
    7. He knowingly led and we blindly followed (ABAB pattern)
    8. "What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight—it's the size of the fight in the dog." Eisenhower
    9. "Well, it's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men." Mae West
28. Double Entendre: Double (two) + Entendre (to mean). A phrase with 2 meanings. One innocent (intended) and another risqué.
    1. New obesity study looks for larger test group
    2. Panda mating fails: veterinarian takes over
    3. "I feel like a million tonight—but only one at a time” Mae West
29. Double negative: simple, use of two negative words. Needless to say it is useless.
    1. I don’t want no dinner. | I do not disagree. | I ain’t got no time. | I can’t find it nowhere. | This is not uncommon.
30. Epithet: A word used to highlight the most characteristic feature of a person, place or thing.
    1. As nicknames: Alexander The Great | The Great Emancipator- Abraham Lincoln
    2. Titles like: Reverend | Father | President | Your Highness | Your Majesty
    3. Common use: Delicate corner | Careful steps | Tragic end | Peaceful dawn
31. Euphemism: to use a polite expression to convey something offensive, blunt, unpleasant or harsh.
    1. Passed away/departed/Negative patient-died | Correctional facility- Jail | Turn a trick – Prostitution | Au natural- nude | Adult entertainment – pornography | Comfort woman – Prostitute | Economical with truth – Lie | Batting on the other side – Homosexual
32. Leitmotif: is a recurring word, phrase, idea, theme, music, character, imagery used to bring out the leading motive in a book, composition, film, art etc. A signature style.
    1. Star Wars Imperial March associated with Darth Vader
    2. Bollywood lovers: Salman Khan dialogues! Shahenshah soundtrack
33. Synecdoche: [si-nuk-duh-kee] where a word describing the part represents the whole or the whole represents a part.
    1. Part to represent Whole- Bread: Food; my daily bread/ bread and butter | Sails : Ship | Hired hands: Workers | Wheels : Car | Crown : Monarch | Bubbly : Champagne | All hands on deck, headcount, counting noses, eyeballs : People
    2. Whole to represent a part – Police | India won the medal – actually the team did | Society |
    3. Class: where one clubs different large group. America – group of countries | Milk – could be from any animal but often referred to as cow’s | Band-aid- for adhesive badage | Xerox - Photocopy
    4. Material: Plastic : Credit cards | Woods : Clubs | Ivories : Piano keys | Rubber : Condoms
34. Parenthesis: Information via word, phrase or clause in a sentence which could be left out, yet the sentence would be complete and correct.
    1. Round brackets:  information that’s not necessary: That girl, (with red hat) is driving the car.
    2. Square brackets: is used to indicate words that were not in the original text – She love[s] her car.
    3. Curly bracket: used to indicate choice: You my eat fruits {papaya, melons, oranges, bananas} but no vegetables.
35. Tmesis: To insert a word by splitting a word or a phrase
    1. Word: Abso-fucking-lutely | Fan-fucking-tastic |
    2. Phrase: What ‘the heck’ ever | The Arctic ‘no longer vicious’ cycle | "legen-wait for it-dary"
36. Wh-question: questions beginning with Why, Who, What, When, Where or How.
37. Palindrome: words, phrases, numbers where the meaning remains the same forward and backward
    1. Noon | Malayalam | No x in : Nixon
38. Onomatopoeia: Words that describe a sound
    1. Buzz | Thud | Whosh | Whizz | Splash | Zipped | Belch | Clap | Flap | Gulp | Mew | Warble | Murmur | Click | Ding
39. Acrostic: is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. We use this a lot to memorize things.
    1. Example: A calendar acrostic

JANet was quite ill one day.

FEBrile trouble came her way.

MARtyr-like, she lay in bed;

APRoned nurses softly sped.

MAYbe, said the leech judicial

JUNket would be beneficial.

JULeps, too, though freely tried,

AUGured ill, for Janet died.

SEPulchre was sadly made.

OCTaves pealed and prayers were said.

NOVices with ma'y a tear

DECorated Janet's bier.

Leave me a line, should you think of other word categories and examples.