English

Noun

bahuvrihi ‎(plural bahuvrihis)

1. (linguistics) A type of nominal compound in which the first part modifies the second and neither part alone conveys the intended meaning.
   • 1986, Alan Jeffrey Nussbaum, Head and Horn in Indo-European, page 273,

     It would therefore not be surprising if unambiguous bahuvrihi morphology were to be used occasionally in a governing compound.

   • 1997, Prague Studies in English, Volume 22, Universita Karlova, page 16,

     At the same time, none of the extended adjectival bahuvrihis has its linear counterpart in either poem.

   • 2006, Réka Benczes, Creative Compounding in English, page 19,

     Thus, bahuvrihi compounds have some kind of an identifying function. Marchand provides the following explanation for the origins of bahuvrihi compounds: they were used very early in Indo-European languages, primarily for namegiving, but most of them functioned only as adjectives.

See also

• Category:English bahuvrihi compounds‎

Translations

See also

• exocentric
• metonymy