COMPOUND WORD Meaning and
Definition
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A compound word is a linguistic term referring to a word formed by the combination of two or more individual words. It is the result of blending two or more words together to create a new word with its own distinct meaning. The constituent words may be either roots, such as "book" or "play," or existing words, such as "blue" or "house." When combined, these words form a compound word, which can have a different meaning than the individual words that make it up.
Compound words can be formed in various ways. One common method is by combining two free morphemes, also known as root words, such as "football" or "rainbow," where "foot" and "ball" or "rain" and "bow" are distinct words that create a new word when joined together. Another way is by fusing a prefix or a suffix to a base word, such as adding "un-" and "happy" to form "unhappy" or combining "friend" and "-ship" to create "friendship."
Compound words can be found in many languages and are an important aspect of vocabulary expansion. They allow speakers to express ideas more precisely and efficiently by combining existing words to form new ones. Moreover, compound words often possess a unique meaning that cannot be directly deduced from the individual words they consist of, making them an interesting area of study in linguistics.
Etymology of COMPOUND WORD
The term "compound word" is derived from the combination of two separate words: "compound" and "word".
The word "compound" originated from the Latin word "componere", meaning "to put together" or "to place together". It entered the English language during the 16th century with the same meaning, referring to something that is composed or formed by combining separate elements.
The word "word" originated from the Old English word "word", which meant "speech" or "talk". It has Germanic roots and is related to similar words in other Germanic languages, such as the Dutch word "woord" and the German word "Wort".
When these two words are combined, "compound word" refers to a linguistic term used to describe a word that is formed by joining two or more individual words together to create a new word with its own meaning.
