English speakers love to create new words by blending existing ones together into "portmanteau words." Sometimes a particular word gets pulled into so many portmanteaus that a fragment of that word becomes "liberated" to become an affix (i.e. a prefix or suffix) all by itself — but one that has a much more specific meaning than what you get with affixes like un-, -ly, or -ness. The best example might be the suffix-gate, which jumped free of the nameWatergate to embark on a successful career turning any noun into a scandal. The linguistArnold Zwicky coined the termlibfix for these creations, and like ants in the grass, once you've identified one of them, you start to see them all over the place. Here is an A-to-Z libfix sampler.

A is for-ana, originally a Latin neuter plural adjective suffix, which now allows you to create a collective noun for things related to any "person, place, or field of interest." Examples:Americana, Ohioana, Shakespeareana.

B is for-burger. Starting with the portmanteaucheeseburger, -burger can produce a word referring to seemingly any noun between two halves of a round bun:bacon burger, black beanburger,turkey burger. In fact, it's so liberated from the original wordhamburger that it's also a word in its own right. And with the advent of thedonut burger, the combining noun can now even refer to the bun!

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C is for-cation the portmanteau-ed form ofvacation instaycation, and now seen innearcation, daycation,girlcation, andmancation. (Note: Don't confuse it withcation, a positive ion.)

D is for ­-dar, first isolated in thegaydar portmanteau ofgay andradar, and now used to talk about Spidey-senses for detecting other socially interesting things:sarcasmdar, humordar,redneckdar.

E is for-erati, useful for naming "groups of people with common interests or characteristics, sometimes with implications of triviality," as lexicographer Michael Quinionputs it. In addition to the sourceliterati, we havedigerati, glitterati, andTwitterati.

F is for-fu, as inkung-fu. In its more general sense, it's a suffix indicating awesome skills in some domain, such asTongue-fu and Script-fu. Sometimes it involves a brand name, likeGoogle-fu,

G, of course, is for-gate. Also for-gasm, the liberated final syllable (or is it two syllables?) oforgasm, which can now be used "to describe the elated feeling caused by a particular item," as defined in one Urban Dictionary entry. Examples:wargasm, nerdgasm, shoegasm.

I is for-inator, a libfix presumably derived fromterminator in the Schwarzeneggerian sense. It allows you to name a machine with near-magical powers, and is often used by thecartoonPhineas and Ferb in inventions such as theSlave-inator orWaffle-inator.

J is for­-jitsu, which basically does the same job asfu, but derives from the wordjujitsu. Examples:geek-jitsu, card-jitsu, cat-jitsu.

K is for-kini. Starting withbikini, the bathing suit named after an island, the liberation of-kini got an extra assist from the fact thatbi- looks like the prefix meaning "two," and bikinis have two pieces. From there we gotmonokini, followed later bytankini, microkini, andpubikini.

L is for-licious. The liberation of the last two syllables ofdelicious was encouraged with the 1970s arrival of Bubblicious gum. These days we havebabe-, boob- andbootylicious, to name just a few.

M is for-mageddon, the inescapable ending for fearsome storms (snowmageddon), large traffic jams (carmageddon), and particularly embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions involving sandals (toemageddon). This fragment ofArmageddon actually had its start as a single word:the word in Hebrew isHar Megiddon "Mount of Megiddo," an important Israeli battle site.

N is for-nomics. Liberated fromeconomics, it has become "the go-to suffix for every trend in search of a pseudo-scientific reason for being,"in the words of Nancy Friedman. Examples:Reaganomics, happynomics, hope-a-nomics.

O is for-omics. First there was thegenome. Then, other words began to use-ome and-omics to refer to the complete set of whatever we're talking about, whether genes, proteins (proteomics), or bits of culture (culturomics). Interestingly, even before it was liberated fromgenome with its current meaning,genome itself was a blend ofgene andchromosome

P is for-preneur, to be found in portmanteaus describing various kinds of entrepreneur:mompreneur, netpreneur, kidpreneur.

Q is for-que, as inbarbeque, now extended to words such aschickenque, turkeyque, andveggieque.

R is for-rama, which can also be used as-orama. Starting withpanorama and thendiorama,-rama has come to attach a multitude of nouns that can take this suffix, giving usFuturama,script-oramas, and, of course, the "complete and total barforama" inStand By Me.

S is for ­-stock. Thanks to the 1969 Woodstock concert, we now have a suffix that, when attached to a noun, gives you a word for a "celebratory gathering," toquote Nancy Friedman once again, with overtones of peace and love.

T is for-tacular, as well as several other libfixes, including-tainment, -tastic, -tini, and the unfortunate-tard. From the original wordspectacular, we now havespooktacular (required by law when describing mega-savings events taking place in the month of October),awesometacular, andcraptacular.

V is for-verse. First there was the universe; then quantum theory pointed the way to multiverses. Now-verse attached to a noun means all the related members of that noun. Usually it's something in cyberspace:blogoverse, webiverse,Twitterverse.

W is for ­-wich. Stripped fromsandwich, the libfix-wich works a lot like-burger. It retains the full meaning of edible stuff between slices of bread, but can now specify the main ingredient, too:snackwich, fishwich, and yes,veggiewich. Unlike-burger, though, ­-wich hasn't made the jump to standalone word in its own right.

Z is for-zilla. As an Urban Dictionary entry puts it, the last two syllables ofGodzilla are now a "suffix added to any noun to describe the biggest/baddest/meanest/nastiest of its type," such asCatzilla,Tunezilla, and the bureaucraticfed-zilla.

There you are, a libfix for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet!

Oh. You noticed I skipped H, U, X, and Y. Well, I've got nothing for those, even allowing for libfixes beginning withex. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment.

Neal Whitman is acolumnist for the online resourceVisual Thesaurus, and an occasional guest writer for the podcast "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing." He teaches ESL composition at The Ohio State University, and blogs atLiteral-Minded, where he writes about linguistics from the point of view of a husband and father.