suppletion
noun/səˈpliːʃən/
Etymology From German Suppletivwesen, from Latin supplēre (“to supply”), perfect stem supplet-, + -ion.
1
Usually The supplying of something lacking.
2
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Usually The use of an unrelated word or phrase to supply inflected forms otherwise lacking, e.g. using “to be able” as the infinitive of “can”, or “better” as the comparative of “good”, or “went” as the simple past of “go”.
3
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Usually More loosely, the use of unrelated (or distantly related) words for semantically related words which may not share the same lexical category, such as father/paternal or cow/bovine, normally referred to as collateral adjectives.
- Related terms
- supplement, supplementary, suppletive, supply, noncognate