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Q&A What effect does compounding bring when used in the title of a song, poem, story?

Inventing new words, including by compounding, is supposed to be clever, or indicate a new concept that should have its own word, sometimes by linking two words that were previously independent mod...

posted 5y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:50Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46625
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:27:23Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46625
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:27:23Z (almost 5 years ago)
Inventing new words, including by compounding, is supposed to be clever, or indicate a new concept that _should_ have its own word, sometimes by linking two words that were previously independent modifiers.

Einstein's theory of General Relativity treated time as another dimension of space, thus making space-time, or spacetime.

Compounds like "no thing" to "nothing" can take on their own meaning, "nothing" is understood in many ways where "no thing" would sound strange. That compound has survived 800 years (I know, nobody ("no body") remembers).

"every time" to "everytime" seems to be a failed effort to make some subtle distinction like this, just like the more successful compounds "peacetime", "overtime", "halftime", "showtime", "timezone".

Inventing new compounds is an attempt to be clever or profound, this can be successful if the compound identifies a unique combination of words to represent a unique concept or condition the public finds useful, or funny, or memorable. That happens, the language is always evolving with new tech, new roles, new kinds of relationships, etc.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-07-15T10:34:02Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 5