1. Trouble - Cat Stevens
2. Trouble – Jay-Z
3. Trouble – Leftover Cuties (amazing Coldplay cover)
4. Trouble – Shampoo
5. Trouble – Elvis Presley
6. Trouble – Flying Lizards
7. Troubles – Blair Tefkin
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May 17, 2012So I’m looking at verb-noun compounds in English, and there are a number of endocentric compounds that begin with the verb blow. Blow comes from OE bláwan, and shows up in a lot of endocentric compounds, which makes sense, since it is a Germanic word. (Trust me on that.)
Blowgun (which comes from blowpipe), blowtorch (which comes from blowlamp) and blowfish are some of the common Modern English forms that use blow. Then of course there is blowjob, which my friend Jason thought up when I told him I was looking for verb-noun compounds in English. This tricked me into saying “Hmm, okay, I’ll look into blowjobs” in public. (Between that discussion and his political-ethical considerations about what makes necrophilia disgusting and illegal, “Hey Jason, how’s necrophilia going?” we seem to have conversations that are quite dangerous when out of context. But he’s cool. Check out his new vlog.)
Blowjob is first attested in 1961, while hand job (a noun-noun compound) first appeared in 1939. Both are American in origin (U! S! A!). Thus, it is very likely that blow job is modeled after the -job pattern of sex acts, rather than being independently created as a verb-noun compound.
And to top it all off, I found this little charmer with one citation from 1885… yes, it’s blow-cock. It really could NOT look more dirty if it tried, but apparently it is a boiler component. The definition even sounds like a euphemism…
So there it is. A dirty dip into etymology.
(All of the data from this post comes from oed.com.)
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May 15, 2012
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May 14, 2012
Conn and Anjel loved it so much that they married it on May 7, 2006. Then they designed cabbages. Then they started on a dangerous business. Now they are enjoying 35 summers. They are currently celebrating their 6th year of matrimony, so I made them a video:
If you had some trouble catching all the businesses, here they are:
- alaskan fisherman
- crocodile wrangler
- nanny for quintuplets
- axe handle fastener and tester
- crash test dummy
- pinboy for tron bowling
- coal mine explosive fuse lighter
- beijing water department quality control
- bomb inspector
- food tester for evil dictator
- circus dentist
- jackie chan stunt man double
- assistant to blindfolded knife thrower
- extreme wedge shoe foot model
- window washer for dubai tower
- killer whale pool cleaner
- hyena dog walker
- hot potato juggler
- artichoke picker
- deaf rodeo clown
- bungee jump inventor
- wampa manicurist
- nepalese mountain pilot
- ringwraith dance partner on dancing with the stars
- drummer for spinal tap
- eiffel tower bulb changer
- tightrope unicyclist
- spacepizza deliveryboy for reevers
- wells fargo stagecoach shotgun
- nudist camp grill master
- in-flight propellor mechanic
- anthrax delivery service provider
- red shirted enterprise crew member
- medusa hairdresser
- shark portrait artist
If the embedded video does not work for you, find the video here on Youtube.
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May 8, 2012
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May 7, 2012
I comply with the right-hand head rule. I am a good compound.
Hi there neighbor. I’m doing something about compounds in English and Spanish for my MA Linguistics dissertation, and I’m 2-weeks in, and already knee-deep in books and articles about Romance compounding, exocentric synthetic compounds in English, deverbal complex words and right-hand-headedness. It’s crazy-go-nuts.
LOOK! LOOK AT ALL THE LARGE BOOKS!!
Just today I was thinking to myself, “Brianne, you’ve really gone down the compounding rabbithole…” and I immediately responded, “RABBITHOLE! ANOTHER COMPOUND!!” And then the first Brianne shook her head.
I love compounds... and meat-flavoured crisps.
I’m learning some really interesting things that make me say “OH!” outloud in the quiet fairhurst building, (sorry fellow students), and I’ll share them when I have a more concrete direction that will make some of this preliminary research unusable, but for now this post is just a friendly resource for me to point new acquaintances to when I ooh and aah over compounds that appear naturally in conversation. Foolproof, handbook, footprint, pickpocket, straitjacket. I’m going to do this for the next 5 months…. at least.
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.
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April 29, 2012*This is very like the first Tiny Dissertation post in its curiosity for the answer, its short lifespan, minimal scope of interest, and un-academic treatment of the subject.
My 'Space God' character (right) in Little Big Planet dancing to Cornman by Kinky
Hypothesis: There should be compound words in Spanish songs, because they are very productive in Romance languages, so they should show up in songs.
Data: Lyrics found online for 10 songs in Spanish, each by a different artist, that I listen to a lot but have never thought about in regards to compounds.
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April 26, 20121. Italian Leather Sofa – Cake
2. Sofa – Caravan Palace
3. Couch Potato – Weird Al Yankovic
4. Couch Surfer – Bran Van 3000
5. Growing Up On A Couch – Less than Jake
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April 23, 2012
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April 23, 2012