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compound

MORPHOLOGY: a morphologically complex word constructed out of two or more unbound morphemes. EXAMPLE: the English nouns steam and boat can be combined to produce the compound noun steamboat. It is not necessary though that the members of a compound belong to the same category as is shown by examples such as blackbird (A+N), swearword (V+N), and colorblind (N+A). On both formal and semantic grounds linguists distinguish several types of compounds, viz. bahuvrihi compounds, dvanda compounds, endocentric compounds, exocentric compounds, root compounds, and synthetic compounds.