A small glossary of specific language change terms

• Acronym: A lexical choice made up from the initial letters of a phrase, being pronounced as a word e.g. RADAR
• Initialism: A lexical choice made up from initial letters, each being pronounced e.g. CD
• Clipping: A new word produced by shortening an existing one e.g. edit (from editor)
• Affixation: Addition of bound morphemes to an existing word
• Prefixes: Addition of a bound morpheme to the beginning of a root word e.g. mega/uber
• Suffixes: Addition of a bound morphemes to the end of a root word e.g. ising
• Conversion: word changes its word class without adding suffix e.g Google (noun to a verb)
• Compound: Combining of separate words to create a new word, sometimes using a hyphen to link them e.g. man-flu 
• Back formation: Removal of an imagined affix from an existing word e.g. editor to edit
• Blend: Two words fusing to make a new one e.g. smog
• Borrowing: A word from a foreign language becomes part of English e.g. karaoke from Japanese
• Derivation: A word is formed from the initial letters of other words e.g. SCUBA
• Abbreviation: A word is shortened e.g. bike, flu, gym
• Root creating: Words are made up entirely, often for phonological effect e.g. blurb
• Eponym: A new word is created from a persons name e.g. plimsoll from Samuel Plimsoll
• Amelioration: words gain positive connotations e.g. sophisticated used to mean artificial
• Pejoration: words develop negative connotations e.g. mistress