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Lexical Innovation in English: From Loanwords to Back‑Formed Verbs and –athon Suffixes

Lexical Innovation in English: From Loanwords to Back‑Formed Verbs and –athon Suffixes

Episode 162 Published 1 week, 3 days ago
Description

In this episode we trace how English borrows stylish terms from French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and more; how it turns everyday nouns into verbs with back‑formation like televise; and how a name for an ancient Greek battlefield evolved into the productive suffix –athon that marks endurance events worldwide.

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