parasynthesis
/ˌpɛrəˈsɪnθəsɪs/
noun
- The process of forming a word by adding a prefix and a suffix at the same time to a base word, rather than adding them one after another.
- The word 'unbelievable' is an example of parasynthesis because the prefix 'un-' and the suffix '-able' were added together to 'believe'.
- In linguistics class, we studied how parasynthesis creates words like 'dishearten' from 'heart'.
- Parasynthesis is common in English, especially when forming adjectives from nouns.