The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since many prefixes and suffixes in English are of Latin or Greek etymology, it is straightforward to add a prefix or suffix from one language to an English word that comes from a different language, thus creating a hybrid word. Hybridisms were formerly often considered to be barbarisms.
English examples
' – from Latin ' "water" and Greek "fear"; this term is distinguished from the non-hybrid word hydrophobia, which can refer tosymptoms of rabies.
Asexual – from Greek A "without" and the Latin ' meaning "sex"
' – a wheeled passenger vehicle, from Greek "self" and Latin ' "moveable"
Biathlon – from the Latin ' meaning "twice" and the Greek meaning "contest"; the non-hybrid word is diathlon
Bigamy – from Latin bis meaning "twice" and Greek meaning "wedlock"
Bigram – from Latin bis meaning "twice" and Greek ; the non-hybrid word is digram
Bioluminescence – from the Greek "life" and the Latin ' "light"
Chocoholic – a portmanteau of "chocolate" and "alcoholic", which itself was formed from the Arabic "alcohol" and the French adjectival suffix '
Claustrophobia – from the Latin ' meaning "confined space" and Greek meaning "fear"
Democide – from the Greek "people" and the Latin ' "-killer"
Divalent – from Greek meaning "two" and Latin ' meaning "strong"; the non-hybrid word is bivalent
:wikt:dysfunction|Dysfunction – from the Greek δυσ- meaning "bad" and the Latin '
Eigenvalue, eigenvector etc. – and English "value", "vector" etc.
Electrocution – a portmanteau of electricity, from the Greek ', "amber", and execution, from the Latin ', "follow out"
Eusociality – from the Greek "good" and the Latin '
Genocide – From the Greek meaning "race, people" and the Latin cīdere meaning "to kill"
Geostationary – From Greek meaning "Earth" and the Latin stationarius, from ', from ' meaning "to stand"
Heteronormative – from Greek meaning "different" or "other" and Latin ' meaning "norm"
Heterosexual – from Greek meaning "different" or "other" and Latin ' meaning "sex"
Hexadecimal – from Greek , meaning "six", and Latin ' meaning "tenth"; the non-hybrid word is sedecimal, from Latin '
Hexavalent – from Greek , meaning "six", and Latin ', meaning "strong"
Homosexual – from the Greek ' meaning "same" and the Latin ' meaning "sex"
Hyperactive – from Greek ' meaning "over" and Latin '
Hypercomplex – from Greek ὑπέρ meaning "over" and Latin ' meaning "an embrace"
Hypercorrection – from Greek ὑπέρ meaning "over" and Latin '
Hyperextension – from Greek ὑπέρ meaning "over" and Latin ' meaning "stretching out"; the non-hybrid word is superextension
Hypervisor – from the Greek ὑπέρ meaning "over" and the Latin visor meaning "seer". This word is distinguished from the non-hybrid word supervisor, which is software that manages multiple user programs; a hypervisor is software that manages multiple virtual machines
Liposuction – from the Greek meaning "fat" and the Latin ' meaning "sucking"
Macroinstruction – from the Greek meaning "long" and the Latin '
Mattergy – from the Latin ' and the Greek : a "word for interchangeable matter and energy" Adjectival form: "matergetic".
Mega-annum – from the Greek ', meaning "large", and the Latin ', "year"
Meritocracy – From the Latin ' meaning "deserved" and the Greek , meaning "government"
Metadata – from the Greek and the Latin ' meaning "given" from '
Microinstruction – from the Greek meaning "small" and the Latin '
Microvitum – from the Greek meaning "small" and the pseudo-Latin vitum, from ' meaning "life"
Minneapolis – from the Dakota' "water" and the Greek "city"
Monoculture – from the Greek meaning "one, single" and the Latin '
Monolingual – from the Greek μόνος meaning "only" and the Latin ' meaning "tongue"; the non-hybrid word is unilingual
Multigraph – from the Latin ' "many" and the Greek ; the non-hybrid word would be polygraph, but that is generally used with a different meaning
Neonate – from the Greek , "new", and the Latin natus, "birth"
Neuroscience – from the Greek , meaning "sinew", and the Latin ', from ', meaning "having knowledge"
Neurotransmitter – from the Greek , meaning "sinew", and the Latin trans, meaning "across" and mittere meaning "to send"
Nonagon – from the Latin ' meaning "ninth" and the Greek meaning "angle"; the non-hybrid word is enneagon
Oleomargarine – from the Latin oleum meaning "beef fat" and the Greek margarites meaning "pearl-like"
Pandeism – from the Greek meaning "all" and Latin ' meaning "god"; compare with the non-hybrid word pantheism
Periglacial – from the Greek and the Latin '
Petroleum – from the Greek , meaning "rock", and the Latin , meaning "oil"
Polyamory – from the Greek meaning "many" and the Latin ' meaning "love"
Polydeism – from the Greek πολύς meaning "many" and the Latin ' meaning "god"; compare with the non-hybrid word polytheism
Quadraphonic – from the Latin ' meaning four and the Greek φωνικός, from meaning sound; the non-hybrid word is tetraphonic
Quadriplegia – from the Latin quattuor meaning "four" and the Greek "stroke", from meaning "to strike"; the non-hybrid word is tetraplegia
Sociology – from the Latin ', "comrade", and the Greek ' meaning "word", "reason", "discourse"
Sociopath – from the Latin ' from ' meaning "to associate with", and the Greek meaning "sufferer" from páthos meaning "incident", "suffering", or "experience"
Television – from the Greek meaning "far" and the Latin ' meaning "seeing", from ' meaning "to see"
Tonsillectomy – from the Latin ' "tonsils" and the Greek , "to cut out"
Vexillology – from the Latin word , meaning "flag", and the Greek suffix , meaning "study"
abounds with non-Semitic derivational affixes, which are applied to words of both Semitic and non-Semitic descent. The following hybrid words consist of a Hebrew-descent word and a non-Semitic descent suffix:
bitkhon-íst 'one who evaluates everything from the perspective of national security', from bitakhón 'security' + the productive internationalism -ist
khamúda-le 'cutie ', from khamuda 'cute + -le, endearment diminutive of Yiddish origin
kiso-lógya 'the art of finding a political seat ', from kisé 'seat' + the productive internationalism -lógya '-logy'
maarav-izátsya 'westernization', from maaráv 'west' + the productive internationalism -izátsya '-ization'
miluím-nik 'reservist, reserve soldier', from miluím 'reserve' + -nik, a most productive agent suffix of Yiddish and Russian descent
The following Modern Hebrew hybrid words have an international prefix:
anti-hitnatkút 'anti-disengagement'
post-milkhamtí 'post-war'
pro-araví 'pro-Arab'
Some hybrid words consist of both a non-Hebrew word and a non-Hebrew suffix of different origins:
shababnik 'rebel youth of Haredi Judaism', from Arabic shabab and -nik of Yiddish and Russian descent
Modern Hebrew also has a productive derogatory prefixal shm-, which results in an 'echoic expressive'. For example, um shmum, literally 'United Nations shm-United Nations', was a pejorative description by Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, of the United Nations, called in Modern Hebrew umot meukhadot and abbreviated um. Thus, when an Israeli would like to express his impatience with or disdain for philosophy, s/he can say filosófya-shmilosófya. Modern Hebrew shm- is traceable back to Yiddish, and is found in English as well as shm-reduplication. This is comparable to the Turkic initial m-segment conveying a sense of 'and so on' as in Turkish dergi mergi okumuyor, literally 'magazine "shmagazine" read:NEGATIVE:PRESENT:3rd.person.singular', i.e. ' doesn't read magazine, journals or anything like that'.
In Japanese, hybrid words are common in kango in which some of the characters may be pronounced using Chinese pronunciations, and others in the same word are pronounced using Japanese pronunciations. These words are known as jūbako or yutō, which are themselves examples of this kind of compound : the first character of jūbako is read using on'yomi, the second kun'yomi, while it is the other way around with yutō. Other examples include 場所 basho "place", 金色 kin'iro "golden" and 合気道 aikidō "the martial art Aikido". Some hybrid words are neither jūbako nor yutō. Foreign words may also be hybridized with Chinese or Japanese readings in slang words such as 高層ビル kōsōbiru "high-rise building" and 飯テロ meshitero "food terrorism".
