Cranberry morpheme

Etymology

Examples

• mit in permit, commit, transmit, remit, and submit, from the Latin verb mittere meaning to give, to send
• ceive in receive, perceive, and conceive, from the Latin verb capere meaning to seize
• twi in twilight
• cob in cobweb, from the obsolete word coppe for a spider
• Many elements in English toponyms, such as "-ing" from an Old English term meaning "the people of."

  Emergence

• A dialectal word can become part of the standard language in a compound, but not in its root form: e.g. blatherskite, "one who talks nonsense", as Scots has the word skite meaning "contemptible person".
• A word can become obsolete in its root form but remain current in a compound: e.g. lukewarm from Middle English luke "tepid".
• A compound loanword may have a recognisable native cognate for one element but not the other: e.g. hinterland is from German hinter "behind" and land "land".
• A loanword may have one part misanalysed to a false cognate: e.g. a taffrail is a type of rail, but the word comes from Dutch tafereel "carved panel".