Reduplicatives – Double Delight

by Sharon

Reduplicatives never travel alone. In fact, they always come in pairs and sometimes sound rather silly. These are the words formed through reduplication, when you repeat a word to form a new one, or slightly change the vowel or consonant. These are inventive and musical words and there are hundreds of them in English.

Also called ‘echo words’, there are three basic types of reduplicatives. Some repeat the word exactly, some of them use rhyme for formation while the others use vowel or consonant shift to come up with the other half of the pair. Most of them are two syllable words (four, if you count both halves of the pair), though there are some with three syllables.

This type of word formation seems to come naturally to us. Shakespeare was responsible for hurly-burly , which is still in use, as well as other reduplicatives that are rarely seen outside the plays. Recent additions to the genre include the chick-flick, a film geared towards women. Here are some common reduplicatives.

Repeating the same word:

ack-ack
aye-aye
bang-bang
beriberi
bonbon
boo-boo
bye-bye
cha-cha
choo-choo
chop chop
froufrou
goody goody
ha-ha
hush hush
muumuu
night-night
no-no
papa
pawpaw

Rhyming:

airy-fairy
argy-bargy
artsy-fartsy
boo hoo
boogie-woogie
bow-wow
easy-peasy
fuddy-duddy
hanky-panky
heebie-jeebies
helter-skelter
higgledy-piggledy
hocus-pocus
hodge-podge
hoity-toity
itsy-bitsy
jeepers creepers
mumbo-jumbo
namby-pamby
nitty gritty
okey-dokey
super-duper
willy-nilly

Vowel changes:

chit-chat
clip clop
criss-cross
dilly-dally
ding-dong
flim-flam
flip-flop
hip-hop
knick-knack
mish-mash
ping pong
pitter-patter
riff-raff
riprap
see-saw
shilly-shally
tick tock
tittle-tattle
zigzag

Feel free to add your own in the comments and check out this list for more.

Related Articles

    No related posts.

Share

Join Over 50,000 Email Subscribers and Get a Free eBook!

  • Subscribe to DailyWritingTips.com via email and you'll be able to download our ebook, "Basic English Grammar."
  • You will also get all our writing tips delivered to your email inbox, completely free!
  • The download link will go along with the first email (you might need to wait up to 24 hours).

26 Responses to “Reduplicatives – Double Delight”

  1. grumpyoneuk on April 23, 2008 2:14 pm

    Regarding “reduplicatives”:

    How about “Tuk-Tuk” and “Tee-Hee” ?

  2. Jaguar on April 23, 2008 3:56 pm

    Would you include definitions with each of the reduplicatives? I’m familiar with several of them, but most I either don’t know them at all, or only have a quasi-understanding of them.

  3. Alice on April 23, 2008 4:43 pm

    How about hugger mugger?
    Does something like bric-a-brac come under this? I also wonder about slight variants, to wit, muckety muck and yakety yak.

  4. Sharon Hurley Hall on April 23, 2008 9:05 pm

    @ grumpyoneuk: Great additions, thanks.

    @ Jaguar: that would be a whole new post; I’ll get to work on it.

    @ Alice: Yes, hugger mugger fits the bill, but I’m not sure about the others – there must be a name for those, too. Time to play word detective :)

  5. Roshawn on April 23, 2008 10:50 pm

    I learned something new today, thanks to this site. Very nice. Would “ta-da” be included? :)

  6. Sharon Hurley Hall on April 23, 2008 11:44 pm

    Yes, Roshawn, that’s another good example.

  7. Jaguar on April 24, 2008 1:35 am

    Thanks Sharon!

  8. OldSailor on April 24, 2008 2:28 am

    Where do these words fit ? lub-dub,mama

  9. Sharon Hurley Hall on April 24, 2008 12:23 pm

    Lub dub would fit in with the rhyming reduplicatives, while mama would be a straight copy, as would papa, dada and so on, OldSailor.

  10. smarty_o1 on April 25, 2008 4:15 pm

    just a teenie weenie feel about brou-ha-ha.

    no no, just a thought. i will neither create a hubbub nor a hurly-

    burly.

    ha.

  11. Tom Paine on April 26, 2008 1:50 pm

    Here’s some. Leaving dashes out. Going golfing after this. No, not Put Put.

    whoopsy doopsy
    blue flu
    do do
    poo poo
    yellow mellow
    later gator
    chill Bill (guess who)
    bees knees (old)
    wham bam
    Jeez Louise
    fat cat
    fire wire (technical)
    hip hop
    Lordy Lordy
    shock jock
    loose goose
    loosey goosey
    pop pop (Gramps)
    flower power
    ga ga (to go ga ga over…..)
    goin’ golfin’ -now!

  12. Sharon Hurley Hall on April 26, 2008 6:48 pm

    What great additions! It goes to show how much we like and use reduplicatives.

  13. Michel on April 28, 2008 1:58 pm

    Rhyme-schmyme, as long as it sounds the same ;)

  14. L. on May 8, 2008 1:44 pm

    Great stuff, Sharon!

  15. Lisa Braithwaite on May 13, 2008 1:06 am

    And then there are all the words we add “shm” or “schm” onto in order to mock them, “fancy schmancy,” for example. Or my blog, “Speak Schmeak.” ;-)

  16. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:03 pm

    is cuck – koo one?

  17. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:04 pm

    choowy-louie

  18. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:12 pm

    addint to easy peasy lemon – squeezy lol ;)

  19. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:13 pm

    adding*

  20. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:14 pm

    shim-sham

    shoo-you

  21. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:15 pm

    I don’t know if these will be included, but they’re so stupid, lol

    Juicy – lucy

    tutti-fruiti

  22. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:21 pm

    wibble wobble

    ting-a-ling ?

  23. Matilda on May 31, 2008 7:22 pm

    Sorry if it looks like I’m spamming – I’m not, I just keep on thinking of some every now n then that I want to add.

  24. my_honey on September 14, 2011 5:12 am

    is there a particular phonological rule or pattern for reduplication?

Have something to say?





Self Publish Your Book!

Popular Articles