Scarecrows and Wardrobes

Triangulos · May 24, 2019

Hi,

I'm trying to find out the grammatical name (and origins) of a form of word construction in English (archaic I think). It's when you have a thing, that performs an action on another thing, but those elements are put together the wrong way round to form the actual word. So something that scares crows isn't a crow scarer (as it would be now) but a scarecrow. Something that wards (protects) your robes isn't a robe warder, but a wardrobe. There are probably other examples, though they seem to be a minority, presumably following an archaic pattern that's no longer used. (Otherwise a "dishwasher" would be a "washdish", a "hairdresser" would be a "dresshair", and a "fire fighter" would be a "fightfire".)

I think those kinds of words have a nice ring to them though - I noticed GRRM's mercenaries in Game of Thrones are "Sellswords" instead of "sword sellers", so he seems to have picked up on that too. Any idea where these words come from, and how they're referred to?

T.

Triangulos · Oct 4, 2022

(Apparently they're referred to as "Cutthroat compounds" - someone did a whole thesis on them!)

https://languagehat.com/cutthroat-compounds/

https://tankhughes.com/?p=1050

mccardey · Oct 4, 2022

And now I also know about nonce words! Thank you for sharing this.

Alessandra Kelley · Oct 4, 2022

There was a whole thread on Twitter last month by David Moore about those sorts of words.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1569366666844192769

Apparently the grammatical term for them is "exocentric verb-noun compound agent noun", and they were a thing in the English language for maybe two centuries, appearing without precedent and then vanishing again, leaving a bunch of them like odd fossils - most of them disreputable, criminal, or underworld terms (My friend's theory is they were originally some sort of thieve's cant or wordplay.).

Pickpocket
Spendthrift
Swashbuckler
Turncoat
Lickspittle
Spendthrift
Lackwit
Scofflaw
Skinflint
Turnkey
Shakespeare
Fallstaff

... although, honestly, my very favorite is not particularly disreputable and is vastly more commonplace than any of those words:

Breakfast

Brigid Barry · Oct 4, 2022

Triangulos said:
Hi,

I'm trying to find out the grammatical name (and origins) of a form of word construction in English (archaic I think). It's when you have a thing, that performs an action on another thing, but those elements are put together the wrong way round to form the actual word. So something that scares crows isn't a crow scarer (as it would be now) but a scarecrow. Something that wards (protects) your robes isn't a robe warder, but a wardrobe. There are probably other examples, though they seem to be a minority, presumably following an archaic pattern that's no longer used. (Otherwise a "dishwasher" would be a "washdish", a "hairdresser" would be a "dresshair", and a "fire fighter" would be a "fightfire".)

I think those kinds of words have a nice ring to them though - I noticed GRRM's mercenaries in Game of Thrones are "Sellswords" instead of "sword sellers", so he seems to have picked up on that too. Any idea where these words come from, and how they're referred to?

T.

I am probably going to read the thesis that someone else posted (because I'm a nerd), but this may be in part due to the German roots of the English language where you mash two (or more) words together to make it something else. One on memorable occasion, my german teacher in high school filled the white board with a very long single word describing a whistle.

dickson · Oct 4, 2022

Brigid Barry said:
I am probably going to read the thesis that someone else posted (because I'm a nerd), but this may be in part due to the German roots of the English language where you mash two (or more) words together to make it something else. One on memorable occasion, my german teacher in high school filled the white board with a very long single word describing a whistle.

English does allow you to mash words together to make a new word, but there are limits. As I recall it from my college days, there is a compound word in the closing scene of Lysistrata that could presumably have a German cognate, but which my English lit translation apologetically noted could not be done in English.

Lysistrata: Now there’s a play whose time has come. Again.

LaurieDelancey · Oct 4, 2022

dickson said:
Lysistrata: Now there’s a play whose time has come. Again.

Lysistrata: the play that by itself, justified my ridiculously overpriced liberal-arts education.

Triangulos · Oct 6, 2022

Thanks for all the responses, and links to other people's discussions about them! I'd noticed these kinds of words myself while knowing very little about where they came from (hence my first post) and as a word nerd I love digging into these kinds of things.

Might be fun to try coining a few new ones. I think I'll start referring to "loading the washdish" at home (until blank looks from the rest of the family persuade me otherwise).

mccardey · Oct 6, 2022

Triangulos said:
Thanks for all the responses, and links to other people's discussions about them! I'd noticed these kinds of words myself while knowing very little about where they came from (hence my first post) and as a word nerd I love digging into these kinds of things.

Might be fun to try coining a few new ones. I think I'll start referring to "loading the washdish" at home (until blank looks from the rest of the family persuade me otherwise).

When we were kids, our wardrobes were full of hang-coaters...

Scarecrows and Wardrobes

Triangulos

Triangulos

mccardey

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Brigid Barry

Under Consideration and Revising

dickson

Hairy on the inside

LaurieDelancey

a magpie mind

Triangulos

mccardey