section_path: Vocabulary/Word-formation processes
section_name: Word-formation processes
paragraph_text: Word-formation processes
  
  English forms new words from existing words or roots in its vocabulary through a variety of processes. One of the most productive processes in English is conversion, using a word with a different grammatical role, for example using a noun as a verb or a verb as a noun. Another productive word-formation process is nominal compounding, producing compound words such as babysitter or ice cream or homesick. A process more common in Old English than in Modern English, but still productive in Modern English, is the use of derivational suffixes (-hood, -ness, -ing, -ility) to derive new words from existing words (especially those of Germanic origin) or stems (especially for words of Latin or Greek origin).
  
  Formation of new words, called neologisms, based on Greek and/or Latin roots (for example television or optometry) is a highly productive process in English and in most modern European languages, so much so that it is often difficult to determine in which language a neologism originated. For this reason, American lexicographer Philip Gove attributed many such words to the " international scientific vocabulary " (ISV) when compiling Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961). Another active word-formation process in English is the creation of acronyms, words formed by pronouncing abbreviations of longer phrases as single words, e.g. NATO, laser, scuba.