1. relating to or denoting a word formed by the simultaneous addition of a prefix and suffix to a base word
Usage: linguistics; technical

Examples

• The word ‘enlighten’ is a parasynthetic formation from ‘light’ with both prefix ‘en-‘ and suffix ‘-en’.
• Parasynthetic compounds are common in many Indo-European languages.
• The linguist explained that ’embolden’ represents a parasynthetic derivation.
• Students of morphology must understand parasynthetic word formation.
• The term ‘parasynthetic’ describes words that cannot be formed by adding just a prefix or just a suffix.
• Many parasynthetic words in English involve simultaneous prefixation and suffixation.