Most of us know that "Halloween" is short for "All Hallow Even," which in turn is an abbreviation for "All Hallowmass Evening," which in turn is a downsizing of "All Hell Will Follow as Masses of Kids Arrive at Your Door One Evening."

I don't mean to sell "Halloween" short, but this word provides a good example of a linguistic process called "clipping." Language, unlike football, imposes no penalty for clipping, though the trampling of lawns on Halloween (often condensed to "trampoleen") can sometimes cost a neighborhood 15 perfectly manicured yards.

Clipping the beginnings of words is called "aphesis." Aphesis unleashes headless horsemen such as (tele)phone, (earth)quake, (alli)gator, (with)drawing room and (e)spy.

Dropping letters from the ends of words is known as "apocope." It's apocope that cuts the tails off chimp(anzee), hippo(potamus) and rhino(cerus) and turns a fanatic into a fan and guacamole into guac.

And when words are burned at both ends, like Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetic candle, it's called "ambiclipping," as in "flu" from "influenza," "jams" from "pajamas," "rizz" from "charisma," and "fridge" from "refrigerator."

Throughout history, the British have kept an especially stiff upper clip, boldly chopping "St. Audrey's" into "tawdry," "Magdalene" into "maudlin," "halfpennyworth" into "haypth," and the head of King Charles I into a bucket (but not before gamely dubbing him "Chas").

Speaking of head games, it's time for trick-or-treat. See whether you can identify the longer version of each clipped word:

No. 1: cello No. 2: mob No. 3: jects No. 4: za No. 5: good-bye No. 6: fortnight No. 7: lord No. 8: bus No. 9: piano No. 10: spats No. 11: bunk No. 12: pram No. 13: burbs No. 14: abs No. 15: rents No. 16: cab No. 17: pants No. 18: prom No. 19: cinema No. 20: props

Bonus: How many words can you name that are shortened to "rep"?

Answers:

No. 1: violoncello No. 2: mobile vulgus No. 3: housing projects No. 4: pizza No. 5: God-be-with-you No. 6: fourteen night No. 7: loafward No. 8: omnibus No. 9: pianoforte No. 10: spatterdashes No. 11: buncombe No. 12: perambulator No. 13: suburbs No. 14: abdominals (muscles) No. 15: parents No. 16: cabriolet No. 17: pantaloons No. 18: promenade No. 19: cinematograph No. 20: proper respect

Bonus answer: the nouns "reputation," "representative," and "repetition," the adjective "repertory" (as in "Yale Rep" for "Yale Repertory Theatre"), and the verb "represent" (as in "she reps a product")

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

Photo credit: Beth Teutschmann at Unsplash