Grammar Girl here, today's episode is about the linguistic phenomenon called clipping.

Did you know that the word van came into existence because the word caravan was clipped?

Clipping happens when a word becomes shortened, because people drop one or more syllables

to form a new word.

Usually both the original word and the new clipped word can coexist as in doc and doctor.

So in other cases such as cab and cabriolay, the clipped word replaces the original word.

English is full of clipped words, such as sub from submarine, deli from delicatessen,

and rhino from rhinoceros.

In episode 391, we mentioned that the funny word zah is a clipped form of the word pizza,

although zah doesn't appear to be in common use except among scrabble players.

This recent example of clipping doesn't mean that this is a new linguistic phenomenon,

however.

This way to form new words has actually been around for centuries.

Fowler's modern English usage, for example, lists 42 clipped words that are, quote,

in current use, but with varying degrees of informality, unquote.

The earliest one on this list, spec, from speculation, originated in 1794.

Clipped words can also become new stems.

For example, you can take the clipped word fridge from refrigerator and add an s to the end,

which of course yields the plural form, fridges.

Another example is the word cabri, which builds off the clipped word cab.

Clipping a word involves removing a syllable or syllables from an existing word, but you're

not limited to deleting only syllables at the beginning.

...