Assuming that my _first_ message entitled "People of the Rivers - Chapter 2"
will arrive soon to the list (it's been a while already...), I've managed to
think up some more "nonsensical" French compounds that derive from genitive
phrases that fit the exact same pattern as the IndoTyrrhenian compounding of
*[lexwe-t:exan] from a similarly constructed locative phrase.
Just in case, Piotr, that you say that "nom famille" is just an "on-paper"
thing and that in spoken French, on dit "nom _de_ famille" avec le mot "de",
these other words should snuff this idea out.
Alors, bon ap�tit, tout le monde!
h�tel-dieu hotel-god (hotel of god)
a medieval hospital
cheval-vapeur horse-steam (horse of steam; steamhorse)
horsepower
porte-plume holder-pen (holder of pen; pen-holder)
penstand
porte-manteau holder-coat (holder of coat; coat-holder)
coatrack
... in fact, "porte-monnaie" too. Hell, "porte-ANYTHING"
will do...
And that is just the beginning of the list. In English, compounding of the
form "dog-house" suffices for us but is this because of the nature of our
genitive and word order (eg: doghouse for "dog's house")?
- gLeN
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