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The funny words above are back-formations, often created by removing a prefix. Unlike back-formations that have become actual words, such as diagnose from diagnosis, or laze from lazy, these are slang or humorous. They often involve cranberry morphemes, which are linguistic units with no meaning by themselves (like “cran” in “cranberry”). Sometimes the morpheme is a fossilized term. For instance, “ruth” is a word that once meant “compassion,” which is where the word “ruthless” came from. Many of these come from unpaired words, which seem like they should have an antonym. Here’s a list of funny back-formations for you. If you can think of others, please add them in the comments.

Funny Back-Formations and Cranberry Morphemes

The P.G. Wodehouse character Bertie Wooster often grasps for a word and comes up with a humorous back-formation. He suggests that someone was, if not disgruntled, “far from being gruntled,” and  that Jeeves, while not a butler, could, if called upon, “buttle with the best of them.”

Jack Winter’s 1994 New Yorker story, How I Met My Wife, is replete with humorous back-formations.