Verb-noun compounds like stopgap and pickpocket, and why they faded

English used to form words by smashing verb into noun, like stopgap, but now we do noun into verb, like buttplug no linguist can explain this

Jul 16, 2024

other verbnoun examples: - pickpocket - scarecrow - turncoat - breakneck - killjoy - pastime - driftwood

this was really common! look at all these examples just starting with "make". only "makeshift" survives in common parlance today

maybe the most recently formed of these was "kissass", which parallels "asskisser", the more common way to compose this now. my "nounverb" thing in the first tweet was just wrong, we mostly do "nounverber" now

what do "nounverber" words sound when put back in "verbnoun" format? 🤬 trashtalker => talktrash 🙌 crowdpleaser => pleasecrowd 🎬 blockbuster => bustblock 🤔 fencesitter => sitfence 🫣 motherfucker => fuckmother I'd be curious to see examples you come up with

huh! maybe it was a faddish thing? that kinda makes sense tbh! language do be like that. few.

Veles Returns From Vibecamp @keyofgeo · Jul 16, 2024

@Malcolm_Ocean I remember reading that this only happened in a very constrained time period around the Elizabethan era; before and after we would have “pocketpick” instead

Jul 20, 2024

aha here's a thread that goes into the history of this fad @throwaway216534 made an account just to let me know about this! x.com/dtmooreeditor/…

Jul 20, 2024