4 ms·
It just takes longer to standardize them but English absolutely has compound single words. Examples include “folklore”, “pancake”, “manslaughter”, “oatmeal”, “p
by philwelch 1y ago
It just takes longer to standardize them but English absolutely has compound single words. Examples include “folklore”, “pancake”, “manslaughter”, “oatmeal”, “pocketknife”, and “gunman”.
- TulliusCicero 1y agoRight, they're just typically limited to two subwords.
- sib 1y agoAnd you can't typically just make them up as you go along and have them accepted as "words."
- philwelch 1y agoAlbeit rare, triple compound words are nonetheless commonly used and recognized in English. Many of them sound formal and archaic but they are nevertheless still in common usage nowadays, not merely a relic of the days of highwaymen and crossbowmen. The archaic examples heretofore used notwithstanding, it would be false to claim that there are no triple compound words whatsoever. (Inasmuch as I've made my point, I will spare you any further woebegone prose.)
- joenada 1y agoThis guy writes.