Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Okay, "productive affix" sounds like a useful term that I probably should have learned before now[*]. It does provide a portion of as clue-like thing, as to where the line between modifying a word and coining a word should be (whether the line is sharp or fuzzy).

And my earliest-remembered example (see my reply to metahacker) was in fact just such a case of replacing a Greek root as you described ... though I was assuming at the time (reasonably or unreasonably) that the root I replaced and the one I put in its place were generally familiar to non-specialist speakers. Though fershure, having an extensive vocabulary of Greek and Latin stems makes doing that a lot easier. (And I know I've heard friends do it with Germanic stems, though much less often, I think, and mostly folks who've at least poked at the idea of studying a little Old English.)

I am so going to have to remember and use "stultiloquent"! Than you for that one!


[*] "Should have" in a "well okay I've never even taken one course in linguistics, but I'm fascinated by language/languages and have done a little reading around the edges of linguistics" sense. So I guess I've got an excuse, but I still feel like I should've picked that up before now.