| base |
| Definition: The language element to which affixes are attached. |
| Example: In the words bobbing, bobs, and bobbed, the base is bob. |
| Etymology: The term derives via Old French from the Late Latin bassus, thick, stumpy, or low. It is possibly related to the Greek basson, the comparative of bathys, deep. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation in this sense is from 1845: "The p is indicatory, signifying that, for the radical vowel of the base, a Guna letter or diphthong is to be substituted." (Proc. Philol. Soc. I. 28) |