A “kangaroo word” is an obscure but fascinating linguistic phenomenon where a longer word contains its own synonym — with letters in the same order.

As pointed out last week, a kangaroo word like blossom contains the synonym bloom, which in turn is called a “joey” — that Australian term for a baby kangaroo.

There are hundreds of these in English — including several simple but clear examples we shared here last week: platter and plate; feasted and ate; supremacist and racist; prematurely and early; curtail and cut; observe and see; even myself and me.

I’m especially fond of instances where it’s possible to derive the synonym in more than one way.

Barrier, for example, gives us the similar bar three times, depending on which R you choose. And pinion, which means pin, also triply yields its own shorter synonym: PINion, PInioN, and PinIoN. (In the past tense, however, there is only PINioNED.)

Or take the classic oddball word Brobdingnagian. Meaning huge or immense, it derives from the Brobdingnags, a race of giants in Jonathan Swift’s 1727 novel Gulliver’s Travels. (That’s why even the adjective is capitalized.) As you may already noticed (or should I say noted): the word big can be derived from both terms — in more than one way. And the same is true for deceased and dead, depending on which E you use. (Departed also yields dead — but only one way.)

Along the same lines: equal can be derived from both equitable and equilateral; and you’ll also find equity in equality (which kinda sounds like a motto).

Appropriately, container holds both can and tin — and that reminds me: the first word in this sentence can be shortened to aptly, which means the same thing (it also works without the -LY). Fittingly (fitly?), apt can also be found inside its synonym apposite.

Another favorite is asseverate, which means to declare in a solemn or serious way. That four-syllable mouthful contains the more manageable aver and assert, which are both synonyms of their longer “parent.”

(Incidentally: ver- is a Latin base meaning “true,” as in very, verify, verdict, verisimilitude and, yes, aver. However, the “ver” in asseverate is not from this base; instead, it derives from severe — for the somber manner in which one makes an “asseveration.”)

We ended last week’s column with a list of kangaroo parent words — and a challenge to find the “joey” in each. Here are the answers:

Allocate: allot. Appropriate (see above). Barren: bare. Before: ere. Budweiser: beer. Calumnies (and falsities): lies. Catacomb: tomb. Chocolate: cocoa. Closemouthed: mute. Contaminate: taint. Contradictory: contrary. Cooled: cold.

Deliberate (verb): debate. Destruction; ruin. Disappointed: sad. Disputation: spat. Encourage: urge. Equality (see above). Evacuate: vacate. Exists: is. Expurgate: purge. Fragile: frail. Honorable: noble. Hurries: hies. Illuminated (and lighted): lit. Indolent: idle. Inheritor: heir.

Instructor: tutor. Municipality: city. Ornamented: ornate. Playfellow: pal. Precipitation: rain. Prematurely (see above). Postured: posed. Rambunctious: raucous. Rampage: rage. Rapscallion: rascal. Recline: lie. Respite: rest. Restrain: rein. Rotund: round. Revolution: revolt. Salvage: save. Slithered: slid. Strives: tries. Substandard: bad. Tosspot: sot. Transgression: sin. And unsightly: ugly.

For more examples, see Rod Evans’s fascinating book Tyrannosaurus Lex — where I first learned about kangaroo words. Online, you won’t find a more thorough list than the appendix for kangaroo words at Wiktionary; but I also like the clever compendium at hitbullseye.com. Examples include deteriorate, which contains both die and rot.

Here’s hoping you won’t be too dazzled by the long list there; or should I say … dazed?