What is back-formation?

• A. Metaphorical extension
• B. Calque
• C. Loanword
• D. Back-formation

Answer: (D)

Back-formation is a way new words are created by removing what people assume is an affix from an existing word, usually producing a new word with a different part of speech. For example, editor is a noun, and people treated it as if it were formed from a verb plus the suffix -or, so they coined the verb edit by dropping the -or. This kind of change often turns a noun into a verb (or a verb into a noun) simply by removing what looks like an affix and reanalyzing the word’s structure. The other options describe different processes: metaphorical extension is about shifting meaning, a calque is a direct translation of a foreign expression, and a loanword is borrowed from another language. So this question is about back-formation.