Combining forms are word components that create compound words in linguistics, often based on classical Latin or Greek words. They have their own semantic meaning and are common in science, medicine, and technology terms. Many fields of study use combining forms, such as -logy and -graphy, while familiar technologies contain combined forms like tele-.
In linguistics, a combining form is a type of word component based on an independent word that has been modified to be joined with another combining word or form to create a compound word. Each combining form has its own semantic meaning, but unlike their source words, combining forms generally cannot stand alone as complete words on their own. Combined forms are part of many English words and are particularly common in areas such as science, medicine and technology terms.
In English and many other European languages, compound forms are often based on classical Latin or Greek words, so the resulting compound words are commonly called classical compounds. English versions may sometimes be several steps removed from their original language. For example, the suffix -graphy originated as an English version of the French -graphie, which comes from the Latin -graphia. The Latin term, in turn, derives from the Greek graphein, which means to write.
Compound compounds that appear at the beginning of a word are often created by changing the word it comes from to end in a vowel. For example, the classical Greek words bios, meaning life, give us the combined form bio- which appears in such familiar words as biology and biography. The major exception to this rule is when the part of the word following the initial combining form begins with a vowel. For example, the English words monarchy and oligarchy, which refer to a government controlled by one person and a small group of people, respectively, derive their combined second base from the Greek word for authority, arche. Thus the earliest forms of word combinations based on the Greek words for one and few, monos and oligos, end in consonants.
Many scientific, academic and medical disciplines have names created by combining shapes. The most common is -logy, derived from the Greek logos, meaning word, statement, or explanation. Thus, biology is the study of life (bios), anthropology is the study of human beings (anthropos), and theology is the study of God (theos). In medicine, a doctor who specializes in women-specific medical problems (gune) is called a gynecologist, while a specialist in blood diseases and disorders (haima) is a hematologist.
Other terms used to refer to fields of study or knowledge include -nomic and the aforementioned -graphy. The former term comes from the Greek word for law, nomos. Individual technical terms in many fields, such as species names in biology, names of scientific techniques, and names of physical or social phenomena, are also commonly classical compounds.
The names of many familiar technologies contain combined forms. For example, the words telephone, television, and telescope all begin with the combined form tele- derived from the Greek tele, meaning distant. The word technology itself is a classical compound based on the Greek word for skill or craftsmanship, techne.
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