# Is there a name for this? (grammar) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2000, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010 "2000-03-11T17:50:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/1 "2000-03-11T17:50:00Z")
Was reading a quiz type thing and although it seems easy it stumped me Is there a name for when you take two words join them together to make a compound word and that compound word isn’t related at all to either of the original words. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/2 "2000-03-11T19:01:00Z")
I’m not sure exactly what you mean. Compound words often have no relation to the two root terms. Quirk and Greenbaum (A Concise Grammar of Contemporary English) mention “bihuvrihi compounds,” which name the entire thing by specifying some features (e.g., “paperback”). They also mention “reduplicatives” (“seesaw,” etc.), and blends (“brunch”) but I don’t think that’s what you’re getting at. Q&G give no other names for compounds. There are “portmanteau words,” invented by Louis Carroll to indicate words made of two put together (i.e., “chortle” comes from “chuckle” and “snort”). “Modem” might fit into that category, which Q&G would probably categorize as “blends.” There’s also tmesis, where one word is inserted into another, like “out-bloody-rageous.” That’s fairly rare, too, though. * * * “What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/3 "2000-03-11T21:51:00Z")
Do you mean a word like “blackguard”? * * * **Dee da dee da dee dee do do / Dee ba ditty doh / Deedle dooby doo ba dee um bee ooby / Be doodle oodle doodle dee doh** [http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/](http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2000, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/4 "2000-03-12T02:26:00Z")
I mean like Clothespin. It consists of two words clothes and pin. However the compound word clothespin relates to both clothes and pin. I am looking for the name when the compound word formed by two independent words, does not have specific meaning to the independent words ---
**Author:** ![Sancho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sancho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sancho)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2000, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/5 "2000-03-12T02:53:00Z")
Like CarPet? ---
**Author:** ![SingleDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@SingleDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingleDad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/6 "2000-03-12T03:46:00Z")
The word you’re looking for is perhaps ‘portmanteau’? > [@](#): > > a word or morpheme whose form and meaning are derived from a blending of two or more distinct forms (as smog from smoke and fog) ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2000, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/7 "2000-03-12T04:09:00Z")
Hmmm… “port”+“man”+“toe”=“portmanteau” Could be. * * * _Now with 1000 posts of pure wisdom!_ (or something) ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2000, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/8 "2000-03-13T06:01:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I am looking for the name when the compound word formed by two independent words, does not have specific meaning to the independent words In other words, like blackguard and not like clothespin. ## Am I missing something? Can you give more examples? **Dee da dee da dee dee do do / Dee ba ditty doh / Deedle dooby doo ba dee um bee ooby / Be doodle oodle doodle dee doh** [http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/](http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/) ---
**Author:** ![ASPA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@ASPA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASPA)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/9 "2000-03-21T00:59:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Markxxx: > \*\*Was reading a quiz type thing and although it seems easy it stumped me > > Is there a name for when you take two words join them together to make a compound word and that compound word isn’t related at all to either of the original words.\*\* CONFOUNDED COMPOUNDED CONFUSION, madam, that’a jes’ what choo gut on yo’ hands, there, mam, I tell yir, sir!! ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/10 "2000-03-21T15:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by labradorian: > \*\* In other words, like blackguard and not like clothespin. > \*\* But…isn’t blackguard like blackboard. In that originally they were black? But I don’t have a good explaination for the guard part except that they are at the front of stores, etc. Anyway, I want a better example of this type of word. I understand Markxxx to be looking for when you have the meaning of the compound word, it has nothing to do with the two root words. So, give an example of a word like that. I’m sure there is such a word, maybe, but I can’t think of one. Is there such a word? Butterfly? No, I don’t like that one. A fly and a butterfly are insects that fly. ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-grammar/9010/11 "2000-03-22T19:37:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I understand Markxxx to be looking for when you have the meaning of the compound word, it has nothing to do with the two root words. That’s my guess as well, if the original poster would clarify. And if so, blackguard (look it up) is one of those types of words. It is neither black nor a guard. * * * **Dee da dee da dee dee do do / Dee ba ditty doh / Deedle dooby doo ba dee um bee ooby / Be doodle oodle doodle dee doh** [http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/](http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/)