Language desk
< November 8	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 9[edit]

Double letters generated in English compound nouns[edit]

Two things German is known for are the abundance of (sometimes very long) compound nouns, and that they can produce even triple letters as in Stillleben. In English this doesn't happen in this case, as still life is written as two words, as is e.g. tennis shoe. Still, compound nouns written as one word are also usual in English - moonlight, horsecar, seafood, letterbox... Which compound nouns result even in a double letter at the points where the words meet? The only example I have found is lamppost. --KnightMove (talk) 12:06, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"Bookkeeper", famous among some word-play enthusiasts for having three double letters in a row... AnonMoos (talk) 12:09, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, Wiktionary has a Category:English words containing three consecutive instances of the same letter including some words such as "belllike" or "mistressship". These words may be obsolete or not used often, but Wiktionary has them. ---Sluzzelin talk 13:11, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I object to that category name. Most of those aren't "words". They are abbreviations, uses of Roman numerals, deliberate misspellings for effect, etc. In the case of the two examples given, those would be properly spelled with hyphens in the dialect I speak. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:28, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Back in 2009, there was a ref-deask thread about "wheelless" that is somewhat relevant. Deor (talk) 17:17, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hitchhiking. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 19:28, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Glowworm. ---Sluzzelin talk 20:18, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

arrowwood
barroom
bathhouse
beachhead
broommaker
cattail
coattail
dampproof
dripproof
dumbbell
fishhook
gingerroot
goddaughter
granddad
granddaughter
harvesttime
headdress
highhanded
hinddeck
jackknife
newsstand
nighttime
plowwright
rattail
rattrap
ringgiver
roommate
roughhewn
roughhouse
scrubboard
sheeppen
shirttail
stockkeeper
swannecked
teammate
watchhouse CodeTalker (talk) 19:04, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wow! Many thanks to all of you. --KnightMove (talk) 21:40, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"Sweettalk", I guess. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 21:43, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

So is the hyphen dying out in relation to these words? For most of those listed above, I would write them with a hyphen between the two words. --Viennese Waltz 08:03, 11 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Or even with a space.--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 21:08, 11 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Concatenating two words into one is quite a thing these days: atleast, atmost, atall, noone, alot, awhile, nevermind, thankyou, straightaway, ... Then there are words that are fine as they are when used as prepositions (eg. apart) or adjectives (eg. everyday), but otherwise should be spelled as two words (a part of something, not apart of something; because this happens every day, it is an everyday occurrence). -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:15, 11 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

JackofOz -- The words on CodeTalker's list are theoretically eligible to be written together as one word because they're compounds which have main stress on the first element (which is a necessary but not sufficient condition for single-word spelling of a compound, as discussed in the comment of "09:05, 8 November 2022" above under November 8th). The words you mention are all quite different in nature, since none of them is an ordinary compound (only "straightaway" could be used as a noun, but not in the meaning you probably had in mind)... AnonMoos (talk) 00:06, 12 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]