Word formation Word formation In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning. The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define: a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form. See 'conversion'. There are a number of methods of word formation. A blend is a word formed by joining parts of two words after clipping. An example is "smog", which comes from
Witch (word) Ælfred", which date to about 890: In the homilies of the Old English grammarian Ælfric, dating to the late 10th century we find: In both these examples "wiccan" is the plural noun, not an adjective. The adjective "fulan" (foul) can mean "physically unclean" as well as "morally or spiritually unclean" or "wicked". In Old English glossaries the words "wicce" and "wicca" are used to gloss such Latin terms as "augur", "hariolus", "conjector", and "pythonyssa", all of which mean "diviner", "soothsayer", which suggests a possible role of fortune-teller for the witch in Anglo-Saxon times. The word "wicca" is associated with animistic