Clippings

Hello folks,

September is finally here and summer is coming to an end. I haven’t written for a while because right now I don’t have Internet connection, but I’ll manage to keep writing anyway. My holidays are over and I am a bit lazy lately, he he. That’s why I decided to write an entry on clippings, given that they represent other beautiful quirks in the English language and what it more, they are somehow witnesses of the laziness and idleness within the English language, the laziness that I experience by myself at the beginning of September.

What are shortenings and clippings ? Let’s analyze the verb ‘clip’. It is a synonym for ‘cut sharply.’ Do you know what clippers are ? A tool to cut tree branches. Have a look at the picture.

From : https://www.colourbox.com/image/hands-are-cut-bush-clippers-image-1901329

In linguistics -as I explained in my post about lexical creativity- clippings or clipped words are reduced versions of words, words that have been cut down or clipped, that is, a shorter form of a long word, within colloquial or informal language. Clippings play an important role in language economy, since they are short, fast, straightforward and easier for kids. In other words, they are some acceptable colloquial words used by ‘lazy’ speakers when they intend to reduce the syllables uttered for the sake of linguistic economy. They are somehow similar to abbreviations and initials, but they have more autonomy and meaning by themselves and they are used in everyday English.

If you don’t understand what they are already let me give you some examples, both in Spanish and English. Being a teacher, I am sick of listening to my students pronouncing the word “profe”, which is obviously a clipping for “profesor”. Obviously, some clippings are not gathered in the dictionary given that they belong to over-colloquial language, but a great deal of them have gained access to the language and have become perfectly accepted and even more often used than their longer counterpart. Let’s exemplify this : what is the subject you study at school which is related to numbers ? : the answer is ‘maths’ or ‘math’ (‘mates’ in Spanish), which are perfectly accepted clippings for ‘mathematics’ (word frequently used in formal contexts). Clippings are widely used in proper nouns, that is, for the names of people. ‘Joe’ is a clipping for John. Understood ?

Well, here you have some example of shortenings, clippings or clipped words.

Clippings related to family

Clipping	Long word
ma	mama / mother
pa	papa / father
grandma	grandmother
grandpa	grandfather / granddad / granddaddy
bro	brother
sis	sister
teen	teenager

Clippings related to technology

Clipping	Long word
tech	technology / technician
phone	telephone
cell	cellular phone
nuke	nuclear bomb
cam	camera
mic / mike	microphone
bot	robot
intel	intelligence
telly	television
Net	Internet
sat	satellite
sync / synch	synchronize

Clippings related to proper names (names of people)

Clipping	long word
Sam	Samuel (for boys); Samantha (for girls)
Tom	Thomas
Ben / Benji	Benjamin
Fred	Frederick
Alex / Lex / Lexi	Alexander (for boys); Alexis (for girls)
Jim	James
Rob	Robert
Cat	Catherine
Mat	Mathew

Other clippings

Clipping	Long word
tool	stool
till	until
round	around
ain't	aren’t / isn’t / haven’t / don’t / am not
ad / advert	advertisement
choc	chocolate
id	identity / identify
tec	detective
jams / jammies / pyjis	pyjamas / pyjamas
shrink	head-shrinker
Pull	pullover
mag	magazine
zoo	zoological garden
barbie	barbecue
cred	credibility
pack	packet / package
fest	festival / festivity
Brits	Britons / British

Sometimes, compounds are also clipped, losing one word. This causes confusion because a specific word is replaced by a generic word:

Clipping	Long word
case	suitcase
sack	rucksack / knapsack
bag	schoolbag / handbag / shoulder bag
pool	swimming pool
lace	shoelace / bootlace
board	blackboard / whiteboard / chalkboard / writing board
pack	backpack / daypack
paper	newspaper
bike	motorbike / bicycle
mobile	mobile phone

Well, have you learnt some clippings to use in your everyday English ? I hope so, since clippings are widely used by native speakers. As you have seen, most clipped words keep the beginning of the word and lose the final part. This is called apocope as happens for example in ‘info’ for ‘information. Other less frequent examples of clippings keep the final part of the word and lose the beginning. This is what happens in ‘phone’ (the reduced clipped version of ‘telephone’). This is called apheresis. Finally, some clippings keep the middle part of the word and lose the beginning and the ending, for example, ‘flu’ as the clipping for ‘influenza’ or ‘fridge’ as the clipped counterpart for ‘refrigerator.’ This is called syncope.

What is your favourite clipping ? What do you think about this process of forming new words? Come on ! It’s time to post a comment sharing all the clippings you use when speaking English. Next week I will be giving you some exercises on clippings. You will have to deduce the long word from the clipping.

See you soon.