Is there a specific term for…?
I mean the adjectives that are hyphenated because the two words themselves aren’t adjectives and couldn’t modify the noun by itself…
Like… blood-curdling, hair-raising, spine-tingling, life-threatening, mind-boggling…
I refer to them as ‘compound adjectives’ for lack of a better term, but I’m sure there is one.
=-)
Favorite Answer
Or perhaps “exocentric compounds”… words whose meaning cannot be guessed from its separate parts. The compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing.
Or maybe, “bahuvrihi compound” (Sanskrit) would be more to your liking. A bahuvrihi compound is one whose nature is expressed by neither of the words: thus a white-collar person is neither white nor a collar.
Thanks for helping stimulate the very OLD brain cells….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv224.shtml
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