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But are there any more adjectives like comfy and indie?
Indie is rarely used as an adjective, but comfy always is. I think that makes comfy unique as a stand-alone word that functions in the sentence as an adjective. Indie (or Indy) is generally used as a noun, meaning an independent production. An indie film festival does not mean the festival is independent, but that the featured films are indies. We do it with lots of nouns (zine, phone, fridge), but not adjectives.
Australians do that with nearly all words (footie, for football team), but it is pretty unusual in America.
Oh, wait, here's another one, used as an adjective: Pro, for professional. But it doesn't quite match the stand-alone quality of Comfy, which can be used in sentences like "Are you comfy?" Comfortable is never used as a noun, while one can be "a pro".
Some adjectives, though, get shortened in slang or street talk, without it being widely accepted. Like "skitzy", for schizophrenic, or "hyper" for hyperactive, or "homo" for homosexual.
I withdrew the "adjective" stipulation earlier in the thread. That was a poorly worded question from me. I was looking for abbreviations that are as widely used and accepted as the longer versions--"hyper" is a good example. It's not a formal word, but it's a ubiquitous colloquialism.
A great majority of English words that are long enough to be shortened, begin with one of a couple dozen Latin or Greek roots (trans-, con-, ad-, pro-, per-, etc.) Nearly all of those prefixes commonly stand alone in at least one of their etymological applications, frequently adding the first letter of the basic root as a disambiguator (Was that word invented by Wikipedia?*) . Some examples would be
Perp for Perpetrator
Tranny for Transmission
Prof for Professor
Addie for Address
Abs for Abdominals
Commie for Communist
Rez for (Indian) Reservation
Diss for Dismiss or Disrespect, or maybe both, origin uncertain
Rep for Representative or Reputation
Kilo for Kilogram
Mono for Mononucleosis
Combo for Combination
Comp for Complimentary
Prez for President
Rehab for Rehabilitation
Rev for Reverend, or Revolution (of a machine)
Mike for Microphone
Max for Maximum
Super for Supervisor
Con for Convict or Confidence (scheme)
Recon for Reconnaissance
Re-bar for Reinforcement bar
Repo for Repossession
Refi for Refinance
Recap for Recapitulate
(* - No. One dictionary says "disambiguate" dates to "before 1973". another says "1960-65".)
A great majority of English words that are long enough to be shortened, begin with one of a couple dozen Latin or Greek roots (trans-, con-, ad-, pro-, per-, etc.) Nearly all of those prefixes commonly stand alone in at least one of their etymological applications, frequently adding the first letter of the basic root as a disambiguator (Was that word invented by Wikipedia?*) . Some examples would be
Perp for Perpetrator
Tranny for Transmission
Prof for Professor
Addie for Address
Abs for Abdominals
Commie for Communist
Rez for (Indian) Reservation
Diss for Dismiss or Disrespect, or maybe both, origin uncertain
Rep for Representative or Reputation
Kilo for Kilogram
Mono for Mononucleosis
Combo for Combination
Comp for Complimentary
Prez for President
Rehab for Rehabilitation
Rev for Reverend, or Revolution (of a machine)
Mike for Microphone
Max for Maximum
Super for Supervisor
Con for Convict or Confidence (scheme)
Recon for Reconnaissance
Re-bar for Reinforcement bar
Repo for Repossession
Refi for Refinance
Recap for Recapitulate
(* - No. One dictionary says "disambiguate" dates to "before 1973". another says "1960-65".)
How about ones where the short form is now the standard? (eg. fan for fanatic).
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