No ancient Greek or Roman would have used a word like "carbohydrate," even if they wanted to lose weight. Carbo is Latin, while hydrate is Greek.

I believe astronaut, automobile, and horticulture are also examples.

Perhaps the membership can help identify additional hybrids (having roots in two or more languages).

RJA

Fascinating question, Robert, but for me it's a difficult one that gives me a headache, since it's not a way I categorize words as I come across them. Aspirin, perhaps?

I agree that it is a fascinating question, and I tried looking for hybrid words. I have searched in Google, on Wordcraft and some other word sites, but so far haven't found much. Now, interestingly, yesterday when I posted about homographs, the definition said that they have the same spelling, but different meanings and origins. Now, they aren't hybrids, but Tinman posted a list of them awhile ago.

I am going to continue to look, though, for the "hybrid" part!

Horticulture, I think that a Roman could figure that one out: the cultura hortorum, or some such. Hortus is Latin garden and cultura is the 'caring for, tilling of'. Anywho, homosexual is one of these Greco-Latin hybrids. Not so sure about astronaut. Latin nauta is a loanword from the Greek nautes. Latin has very few compound words, e.g., paterfamilias, but Greek, like its cousin Sanskrit, has many.

television

monoplane, monolingual -- and the spurious mono/bi distinction has become established by analogy

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Originally posted by aput:
television
the spurious mono/bi distinction

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Tell us more...

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Television ? The word is half Latin and half Greek. No good can come of it !

C.P.Scott (attrib.)

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