Word Parts Dictionary: Standard and Reverse Listings of Prefixes, Suffixes, and Combining Forms

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Summary: from College & Research Libraries News
Review: Word Parts Dictionary, by Michael J. Sheehan, will be much appreciated by writers, linguists, and coiners of neologisms. Much of our complex language is made up of word chunks with specific meanings that combine with other fragments to form elegant-sounding compounds--"$10 words," as I once heard them called by someone with a preference for monosyllables. This dictionary defines all known suffixes, prefixes, combining forms, and bases; provides a reverse dictionary of meanings to locate that elusive particle; and groups some of the word parts into categories (animals, food, shapes, etc.). With no trouble at all, the user can formulate a new word for "obsession with pinching buttocks" (pygorrhexophilia), in case one is ever needed. A work of lexicoplastic brilliance. $39.95. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0819-7 (1042/C&RL News * December 2000)