Scarecrow and pickpocket are compound words that name things and people by describing what they do. Such nouns were especially popular centuries ago, when quake-breech meant a coward, a saddle-goose was a fool, a scrape-gut was a violinist, and tanglelegs meant strong alcohol. The linguistic term for such terms is a mouthful: agentive and instrumental exocentric verb-noun compounds. Linguist Brianne Hughes, who has studied them extensively, calls them cutthroat compounds, the word cutthroat being another case in point. She’s collected more than 1200 cutthroat compounds at her website, Encyclopedia Briannica. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cutthroat Compounds”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
A compound word consists of two words that are put together to express one idea. Like the word houseboat is made up of two words, house and boat. Same with steamboat. And both of these specify a particular kind of boat.
But there are a few compound words in English that work differently. A scarecrow, for example, isn’t a type of crow, and a pickpocket isn’t a type of pocket. And words like scarecrow and pickpocket belong to a small category of compounds that name people and things by describing what they do.
And the interesting thing is that centuries ago there was a real fashion for forming words like this. And it was a whole lot of fun, like a quake breach. Can you guess what a quake breach is?
Somebody who’s shaking in their boots? Yes, yes, or in their breeches. Yeah, they’re a coward. Or a saddle goose. What about a saddle goose?
Somebody who’s a bad horse rider? Well, somebody who’s a fool who’s silly enough to try to saddle a goose, which if you’ve had experience with geese, it’s not so easy. And Breanne Hughes is a linguist who spent years studying this category of words.
Technically, they’re called agentive and instrumental exocentric verb noun compounds. What? But she calls them cutthroat compounds. Oh, that’s better. Because cutthroat is another example of that. It’s not a type of throat. And she’s collected more than 1,200 of these.
Like, for example, a scrape gut. Any guesses? Somebody who tans hides? I would have thought the same thing, but it’s a violinist. Oh, okay. Very good. Yeah, or tangle legs. I like this one.
Somebody who’s not a sure-footed dancer? Well, you’re not a sure-footed dancer after you’ve had moonshine. Tangle legs is an old word for a strong alcoholic drink. Oh, I see.
She’s got a bunch of these on her website, which she calls Encyclopedia Brianica. Nice. And I’ll share a few more of these later in the show.
Cutthroat words. Cutthroat compounds. Cutthroat compounds. Outstanding. Well, We’ll Wait With Words is a show about all facets of language. We know you say something weird in your house or your workplace, or you came across a phrase in your reading.
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