English Compound Words and Phrases - Forgotten Books

ENGLISH

COM PO U ND WO RD S

AND PHRASES

A R E FE R ENC E L I ST W I TH STATEM ENT O F , PR I NCI P LES AND R ULES

O A U T H R O F

F H O R AC E TEA LL .

O NO N D N N ND O DD D O N D N D O T H E C

MP

FU

U

I G O F E G LISH

K a W A G N A L L S ' S TA

WR AR

S,

A ND

E PA R TM E

I C TI

ARY

TE

IT R O F

P R I N TE D I N TH E U N ITE D STA TE S

N ew Y ork

FUN K

W A G N A L L S C O M P AN Y

L T O N D O N A N D

O R O N TO

P R E FA C E .

TH E

original list of w hich this

is

a

revision

w

as

m d ' ae

for guidance i n th e preparation of th e Standard D ictionary,

and adopted after m any competent critics had expres sed

their approval of it.

I n the prefac e of the author' s earlier book, " The C om pounding of English W ord s, " the making of a list of all comm on compounds w as said to be impracticable. The

reason for that assertion holds good, and th e pre sent is not suc h a li st. C ompound s that are p t rac ically c omm on

have been used in E nglish literature, and others e qually good are continually m ade, i n such numb ers that th e di c

e ve e t e t tionarie s can n

r r cord all

ha t are i n c urr n

use .

A ll term s of the kind in question found in our fullest

dictionarie s are here gathered, be side s many others, w ith the hope that the list m ay be advantageous to all w ho

desire to attain reasonable consistency in the matter of

i com pound

g n .

Careful selection of the form s m ost in

e accordanc w ith the b est literary u sage has b een the aim

of the th au or, and h e has endeavored to sh ow fully the analogie s upon w hich the s ele ction i s bas ed .

Many good w riters ob j ect to fre quent use of the hyphen ,

but even they may fi nd the list useful--i f for no other

e s r a on ,

b e c au s e

of

its

er c ord of c om m on

solid w ord s each

e s e s h s mad of tw o w ord .

O ur languag

has many

uc

w ord ,

unque stionably e t c orr c i n the c los e form, that are fre

quently s eparated into tw o w ord s i n print; Such s epara

tion, in many cases, should not be possible as anything

P R E FA C E .

but t` he mere st accident. C ontinual reference to a full li st

s eem s to promise a practical ef m r or .

There is nothing i n the history of our language to

indicate a probability that English w riters w ill ever universally omit th e hyphen i n i compound g n . O n the

t con rary, our gramm arian s and ph ilologi sts all give

eviden ce in favor of hyphened s compoun d , the only

difficulty in the case b eing that they are not sys

te matic or thorough i n this m atter.

W.

D .

W h itn ey ,

for in stance, i n hi s b ook on " The L ife and G row th of

e L angu ag

"

,

speaks

of

"

a

proce s s

w hich the

gen eral

his

tory of language show s to be more imp t or ant than any

o

t

h

e

r

,

"

and

then

s ay s

:

"

It is

the

c ompos iti on

of

s w ord ,

the putting tw o independent elem ents together to form

a single d esignation . " He sho w s that h e means hyphened

as w ell as continuou s compoun d s by citing r e s ts d a y, le a r n

-- i ngs kn i ghts , he a d d re s s and his b ook ab ound s i n hy

phe n e d com pounds m any of the m improperly s o w ritten.

M ax Muller' s books are very much like Profes sor Whit

ney' s in this respect, and so are the w orks of all our best

w riters .

Is it not w ell, then, to fi nd and settle upon the principle s that should guide us in the use of th e hyphen ? The se

principle s the author has tried to s et forth clearly i n " The

C om p oun di ng

of

English

s Word " .

For the fullest reason

ing about that subj ect of w hich he i s capable, inquirers must be referred to that book ; ti but a prac cal w ork for

constant reference seemed to be required, and this one is m ade for such use .

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