#compoundwatch — Public Fediverse posts

English "submachine gun" is, according to the OED, formed by derivation: sub + [machine gun]. This is in line with the historical information in wikipedia ("...to describe its design concept as an automatic firearm with notably less firepower than a machine gun (hence the prefix "sub-"). "), but strange nevertheless due to the space between "submachine" and "gun".
#compoundWatch

#compoundWatch: I forgot to mention: #English "bandolier" is a compound in #German: "Patronengürtel" cartridges + belt, so, relatively transparent :)

Nicely motivated #English compound that nevertheless has somewhat fallen out of use: "cat burglar" for 'A burglar who enters by extraordinarily skilful feats of climbing.' (OED)
Seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Rudensky
#compoundWatch

Orthographisch etwas merkwürdig aussehendes aber doch korrekt geschriebenes Kompositum: "Opernbalkonselfies", d.h. Oper + n (als Fugenelement :)) + Balkon + Selfie + s.
Komisch unter anderem weil es fast "Opernball" enthält, und vielleicht auch das "fies" am Ende, was beides zusammen in der Mitte das "konsel" Segment produziert.
#compoundWatch #German

Three compounds across three languages, all well-motivated, and all referring to the same thing, the runway at fashion shows:

English: catwalk
German: Laufsteg 'run' + 'footbridge'
Mandarin Chinese: T型台 T xing2tai2 'T-form' + 'platform'

Motivated in all three languages:
- E: looks like/forces you to walk like cat walks
- G: runway is set high above the ground like "Steg"
- MC: form of the runway

#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

RE: https://troet.cafe/@kriegundfreitag/116674698896550368

#compoundWatch

Just so you know: the rather boring spaced compound "tour boat captain" describing Lana Del Rey's husband in her English wikipedia entry has to compete with the much more evocative, concatenated compound "Sumpfbootkapitän" '[swamp + boat] + captain' in her German entry.
#compoundWatch #English #German

Somehow especially disappointing that "end product" is not written as one word.
#compoundWatch

Nice string of three "X house" compounds that are quite different from what one usually thinks of when hearing the word "house":
"They [restaurants]'ve set up in vacant filling stations, lumber mills, warehouses, halfway houses, firehouses, churches, chop shops, storefronts, studios, scrapyards, and school buses; [...]" (Estleman, Cutthroat dogs, Chapter 13)
In fact, if one applies whether any constitutent appears in the definition as a test of #semanticTransparency, Wikipedia's definition of "halfway house" renders it completely semantically opaque:
"A halfway house is a type of prison or institute intended to teach (or reteach) the necessary skills for people to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. " The entry also explains the motivation behind the term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway_house
#compoundWatch #English

When looking for the scope and aims of the journal "The Mental Lexicon" (I am working on a review :)), I noticed a cross next to Gary Libben's name: apparently he passed on last year,.
He was always a most friendly, fun, and enthusiastic person whenever I met him at conferences, and of course he was a very major lover of compounds and everything about them.
Here is a link to an obituary:
https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2025/05/brock-mourns-the-passing-of-applied-linguistics-prof/
#compoundWatch #GaryLibben

Wollte eigentlich nur Nachschauen was "Preisschnapsen" ist (= Schnapsen um Preise, wobei Schnapsen ein Kartenspiel ist). Kam darüber noch zur "Kathederblüte" (= Stilblüte von einer Lehrperson), und auch diesem schönen, Johann Georg August Galletti zugeschriebenen Ausspruch:
"Ihr denkt wohl, Geschichte ist so leicht als Schnarps? Ach, Geschichte kann man in einer Stunde lernen, aber an Schnarps muß man mehrere Jahre studiren."
#compoundWatch
Mehr hier: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnapsen

Learned a most excellent #English birdname today: "Goldeneye". As the picture illustrates, a well-motivated metonymic name for a duck. You ask, is the #German name not perhaps also a most excellent name. I would say: it is ok, "Schellente" Schelle/schellen 'bell/to ring'' + ente 'duck'. Apparently motivated by the characteristic sounds that they make when flying (unfortunately I have not heard them flying :().
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
Image credits: Hyla meridionalis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Walking to the train station after visiting an old friend in Hamburg/Altona, I stumbled across a sign containing this weirdly configured German compound: "Dampfmarzipanfabrik" steam + marzipan + factory. Intuitively, my reading was: factory for steam marzipan. AFAIK, no such thing as steam marzipan exists, and it does indeed refer to a steam-powered factory for marzipan. Web-searching reveals different spellings (e.g. Dampf-Marzipanfabrik), but for me, "Marzipandampffabrik" would have been the configuration of choice (but the sequence "mpff" looks ugly)
#compoundWatch

#compoundWatch: useful #MandarinChinese compound:
病友 bing4you3 illness + friend: 'friend made while being in a hospital', and also just 'wardmate'

Painfull #compoundWatch moment: a dead compound in the OED. Why did "eyethirl" not make it? I do not know, eye + hole for "window" seem OK do me. "Window" itself according to the OED a borrowing from early Scandinavian, luckily enough also a compound, from the "early Scandinavian cognate of" (OED) wind and eye.

Always a highlight with plant names: looking up the translation equivalent and realizing that this is also not helpful. Anyways, #English "Chinese parasol tree" has a relatively straightforward #German equivalent "Chinesischer Sonnenschirmbaum". Of interest (#compoundWatch :)): they share the motivation for the name, so apparently a tree somehow comparable in function to a parasol. The #Chinese name does not have this component, it is just 梧桐, wútóng, with both characters sharing the left component indicating it is likely a plant. So what is this tree like? Wikipedia to the rescue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmiana_simplex

#compoundWatch: solid compound humour
https://mstdn.social/@grickle/115333723408106770

Unerwarteter #compoundWatch Moment: "Lockspitzel" im Langenscheidt Schulwörterbuch #Französisch (2000) für "agent provocateur". Immerhin, das Wort gibt es wohl wirklich, und im DWDS dazu noch den sehr schönen Belegsatz "Es ist hier nötig, die Tatsachen sehr genau zu fixieren, Herr John engagiert einen Lockspitzel namens Kraus. [Die Zeit, 18.01.1954, Nr. 03] "

Rather misleading short #German name for a proposed EU law: "Entwaldungsverordnung" deforestation + regulation. On first sight, implies a reading like 'a regulation to deforest'. It is, however, to be interpreted as `regulation regarding deforestation', and it specifically tries to combat it (see "entwaldungsfreie Lieferketten' deforestation-free supply chains).
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verordnung_(EU)_2023/1115_(entwaldungsfreie_Lieferketten)

@dan Another German example, this time from the world of compounds:

1. Hochzeit [ˈhɔxˌt͡saɪ̯t] high + time 'wedding'

2. Hochzeit [ˈhoːxˌt͡saɪ̯t] high + time ' 'the best time (like the golden age of sth)'

Both are lexicalized, but the second one is semantically slightly less opaque and the pronunciation of the adjective is the same as when it is used on its own as opposed to the reduced variant in 1.

#compoundWatch

Another good example for semantically motivated compounding that nevertheless is far away from any meaning predictability:
the Mandarin Chinese translation for German "Wurst" 'sausage' is 香腸 xiāngcháng, 'fragrant' + 'intestines'
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

First time I am really missing quote posts here on Mastodon ... anyways, fascinating discussion of two readings of "inktrap", either as referring to a problem or to its solution (see boosted post). From a #semanticTransparency perspective, it is all the more intriguing because both readings still more or less fit a standard compound paraphrase like "trap for ink", highlighting that most compound classification schemes are still way to coarse-grained.
#compoundWatch

I notice with considerable satisfaction that one of the meanings the OED gives for "shitstorm" is "a commotion".
#compoundWatch

Endlich mal wieder #GermanConversationSnippets und #compoundWatch in einem:

A: Ein Schweinsohr bitte
[Verkaufsabwicklung]
B: Wolln Sie ein Stück unnützes Wissen dazu?
A: [Verwirrt, war auch schnell gesprochen] Nein, wie, ja gerne.
B: Das heißt nicht Schweinsohr wegen der Form wie alle denken sondern weil es ursprünglich in Schweineschmalz gebacken wurde. Aber das ist heute ethisch nicht mehr vertretbar.
A: Ah, OK, das wusste ich nicht, danke.

[Kontext: Beim Bäcker im Kaufland im Lindenauer Martk, B Verkäuferin, A ich. 08/05/2025]

Interesting variation (or did he make mistakes?) in W.G. Sebald's Die Ausgewanderten (The Emigrants): "teas-maid" instead of "teasmade/teesmade". Das ganze ein "electric miracle", "Weckeruhr und Teemaschine zugleich" 'alarm clock and tea-machine at the same time'.
#compoundWatch

Recently encountered usages of "Porn/Porno" as second part of German compounds to describe non-porn books:
"Politporno" (Boris Johnson's Unleashed), "Trauma-Porn" (Hanya Yanagihara's Ein wenig Leben/A Little Life)
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

A rather beautiful classical Chinese compound for your Easterly enjoyment:
琴瑟 qínsè zither + zither (well, different kinds of zither, with the 瑟 sè "A more robust and serious instrument"). Metaphorically used to express close friendship.

#compoundWatch #classicalChinese

Sweet #compoundWatch moment today:
1. There was a "rumor clinic" at the Boston Herald during WW2 times for what now would be called fact-checking.
2. The idea came from a very impressive female journalist, Frances Sweeney, who unfortunately died very young. More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Sweeney

Enttäuschendes Lowlight beim Konsum nebenan, so aus #compoundWatch Sicht aber auch generell: die Kaiserbrötchen kosten einen Cent weniger als die normalen Brötchen (15 vs. 16 cent ). Fühlt sich nicht richtig an.

Watched "The Outrun" yesterday (highly recommended :)), and the bird species that plays a significant role in the movie, the corn crake, is also quite interesting from a #compoundWatch point of view: its scientific name "crex crex" is onomatopoetic, imitating the male's call (from Ancient Greek κρεξ which was a bird name but arguably also already onomatopoetic). The English compound, with Northern "crake" for crow, is motivated by the bird's association with fields. In contrast, the German name, "Wachtelkönig" quail + king 'king of quails' is a bit more colorful, apparently motivated because they were often caught together with quails but are slightly bigger, so naturally they are the king :)