In linguistics, a clipped compound is a word produced from a compound word by reducing its parts while retaining the meaning of the original compound. It is a special case of word formation called clipping. Clipped compounds are common in various slang and jargon vocabularies. A clipped compound word is actually a type of blend word. Like other blends, clipped compounds may be made of two or more components. However, a blend may have a meaning independent of its components' meanings, while in a clipped compound the components already serve the function of producing a compound meaning. In addition, a clipped compound may drop one component completely: hard instead of hard labor, or mother for motherfucker. Laurie Bauer suggests the following distinction: If the word has compound stress, it is a clipped compound; if it has single-word stress, it is a blend. The meaning of clipped compound may overlap with that of acronym, especially with compounds made of short components. In the Russian language, a clipped compound may acquire one or more extra suffixes that indicate the intended grammatical form of the formed word. In particular, the suffix -k is commonly used, for example, in askorbinka. In Japanese, clipped compounds are very commonly used to shorten long, either coined or wholly borrowed, compounds. For instance, a word processor may be referred to as simply ワープロ wāpuro, sexual harassment as セクハラ sekuhara, the programClip Studio Paint as クリスタ Kurisuta, the video game seriesMonster Hunter as モンハン Monhan, the United Nations as 国連 Kokuren, and the Soviet Union as ソ連 Soren.
Chinese: The Chinese city of Wuhan takes its name from a clipped compound of the "Three Towns of Wuhan": Wuchang contributes "Wu", whereas Hankou and Hanyang both contribute "Han."
Japanese: In Japanese, city names are often combined in a clipped compound with alternative readings of the characters, especially for combined regions or for train lines between cities. Most often the kan-on readings are used for the compounds, while the place names use other readings. For example, the Kyoto and Osaka region is called Keihan, as is a major train line connecting them, replacing the go-on reading and kun'yomi with the kan-on readings and. The larger region, including Kobe, is similarly called Keihanshin, the go-on reading replacing the kun'yomi, and a major Kyoto-Kobe line is the Keihan Keishin Line line.
Hebrew: In Hebrew, the word רמזור is made of the two words רמז and אור.
Multi-lingual: The Benelux Union takes its name from its component nations, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
