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This has been rattling around in the back of my mind for many years (way before Stack Exchange came into existence), so it's a relief to finally ask the question.

There are words that can be "contracted" by removing one or more letter(s) (without changing the order of the letters) to form a shorter word with the same meaning, or one very close to it.

The two strongest examples I can think of right now are:

rapscallion -> rascal

and

satiate -> sate

This is a slightly weaker example:

rapine -> rape

Even though "rape" has come, in modern usage, to refer almost exclusively to a sexual crime, it can still be used in a more literary (and purposefully anachronistic) sense to mean "the plunder and pillage of a country or region". In that sense, "rape" can be used in a similar fashion to "rapine"; in any case, the two words are etymologically related to the Latin rapere which is tied to the archaic usage.

Another weaker example:

transliterate -> translate

These words are near-synonyms, but there is a definite difference in their meaning. Still, I guess this pair would qualify, albeit in a looser sense.

I wanted to exclude some relatively trivial examples, such as:

(inflammable -> flammable)

(perambulate -> ambulate)

and so forth. So I've imposed the additional rule (arbitrary though it may seem) that the "stripped" letters must not come from the start or the end of the word, but only from its middle.

Acronyms and portmanteaus are also excluded, as are "slangier" contractions e.g.:

(modulator-demodulator -> modem)

(motor-hotel -> motel)

(certitude or certainty or certificate -> cert)

I guess the long-short forms of the same word would form a linguistic doublet. I've coined the term "telescoping word" to describe the long form that "collapses" into the short form with letter deletion sans anagramming.

My question is: has this phenomenon already been studied? If so, what name have authorities given it? Is there already an existing reference or resource on it? Thanks in advance.

(This is not a duplicate of Is there a term for a word inside another word?, as that is asking about the more general phenomenon of words (not necessarily synonyms) occurring within larger words. In fact, the question specifically mentions "kangaroo word" and states that a broader scope is being sought.)

Deepak
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    The pair of words "transliterate" and "translate" have distinctly different meanings and are not an example of the class of words you are referring to. Transliteration is when one takes a word written in Korean, for example, and writes the word in English letters in a way so as to maintain the sound of the word when spoken. So the Korean word for a certain popular Korean side dish made of fermented vegetables would be transliterated into English as "kimchi" (or a variant). Translation would be to render "kimchi" as "fermented vegetables". – brasshat Dec 19 '14 at 06:32
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    @brasshat Fair point. Which is why I mentioned that there is a definite difference in their meaning, making this a weaker example. But I still consider the words to be in the same "ballpark" meaning-wise, because both pertain to transforming text from one language to another. The difference is that one is transforming merely the written word (script) while preserving the original spoken sound, whereas the other is transforming the written word and spoken sound while preserving the meaning (at least as far as possible). The closeness in meaning is a subjective thing, and I don't insist on it. – Deepak Dec 19 '14 at 17:06
  • Possible duplicate of Is there a term for a word inside another word? – Edwin Ashworth Aug 24 '19 at 16:07
  • @EdwinAshworth This is not a duplicate, and I have edited to explain why. – Deepak Aug 24 '19 at 18:02
  • But it's a question very limited in scope, and the hyponym 'kangaroo word' is mentioned in the other thread. And obviously the title question as you originally put it was a duplicate. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 24 '19 at 18:41
  • You are confusing different word formation ideas. And quite frankly, I am too lazy to plough through this and elucidate it to any great extent. Flammable and inflammable and ambulate and perambulate,for instance, are about prefixes. As for rape and rapine, they have different origins. Your game works as a game, but not as a linguistic matter. – Lambie Aug 24 '19 at 19:58
  • @EdwinAshworth The fact that I couldn't find the term with a search of this site (which I assuredly made before posting this question) suggests that the previous question and answer simply didn't make it easy for someone wondering about the specific question of "synonyms hiding in words" to find the correct term. That it took someone almost 5 years to flag my question as a potential duplicate (which I still dispute) supports my point. Ultimately, SE is meant to be an easily searchable Q and A repository. If a search failed to reveal a relevant Q and A, then a new Q may not be out of order. – Deepak Aug 25 '19 at 01:46
  • @EdwinAshworth Your point about the thread titles is useful, and the edit is justified in light of the linked Q. – Deepak Aug 25 '19 at 01:47
  • @Lambie Your comment seems to serve no purpose other than deriding my question without contributing anything of substance. If you bothered to parse my question properly, I specifically excluded simple prefixes. Also, I never sought deep explanations based on linguistic theory and I did not post it on the Linguistics SE, so your criticism is a non-sequitur. What's wrong with asking a "fun" question (which seems to be your implication by using the word "game")? Word games are wildly popular, and there are no specific prohibitions against questions related to such on this SE site. – Deepak Aug 25 '19 at 01:51
  • You should have said this was a game otherwise it does not qualify as English Language Usage. NPR has word games like this every week. In any event, rape and rapine come from different origins. Anyway, you call it a phenomenon and wonder if "authorities" have studied it. So, yes, you are asking about "deep explanations", which I therefore assume means you are asking about linguistic relevance. – Lambie Aug 25 '19 at 14:47
  • For what it's worth, I've added the word games tag. Even though my question didn't actually originate from a formal word game that someone else had composed. – Deepak Aug 25 '19 at 15:45
  • Actually, in your comments you have provided a good explanation as why it makes sense to mark your post as a duplicate. Next time someone uses the term "telescoping" they should find your Q and the (slightly) older, original post and avoid posting a new question, using different terms but where the answer will still be "kangaroo word". – Mari-Lou A Aug 27 '19 at 12:04
  • @Mari-LouA I'm honestly still unsure about the mechanics of some SE functions. If marking my question a duplicate will preserve it while making future searches more meaningful, I'm actually fine with it. I'm OK with my Q and the existing accepted A being locked in this state. What I don't want is deletion (i.e. the textual content herein vanishing). – Deepak Aug 27 '19 at 13:16
  • Your question has been upvoted and you also received an answer, which was also upvoted and accepted. Your post should be safe from the "roomba", an automatic sweeper that deletes unanswered, downvoted and abandoned posts. But I don't think anyone can guarantee that nothing will ever happen. It should be safe. – Mari-Lou A Aug 27 '19 at 14:22
  • @Mari-LouA Thanks for the reassurance. – Deepak Aug 27 '19 at 15:46

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I think kangaroo word is the closest term for this.

A playful term for a word that carries within it a synonym of itself--such as regulate (rule), indolent (idle), and encourage (urge).

It's generally believed that the synonym (called a joey) should be the same part of speech as the kangaroo word and its letters should appear in order.

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/kangaroowordterm.htm

There are also twin kangaroos and anti-kangaroo words.

Twin kangaroos are kangaroo words containing two joey words (for example: container features both tin and can). In contrast, an anti-kangaroo word is a word that contains its antonym; for example: covert carries overt, animosity carries amity.

[Wikipedia]

ermanen
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  • Thank you! This is exactly what I've been looking for. I knew this site wouldn't let me down! :) – Deepak Dec 19 '14 at 05:09
  • @Deepak: You are welcome. This is a great question also! – ermanen Dec 19 '14 at 05:14
  • The should call the word inside the kangaroo word the roo. Please note, this is just happenstance whereas the OP thinks he is describing a linguistic reality. – Lambie Aug 24 '19 at 19:53