On the earliest Verb-Noun compound in English

Authors

• Brian Joseph The Ohio State University
• Jacqueline Marshall The Ohio State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51814/nm.152346

Keywords:

compound, exocentric, borrowing, French, productivity, Old English, Middle English, language contact

Abstract

Although Marchand 1960 gives the earliest exocentric Verb-Noun compound in English as being traylebastoun ‘a violent evil-doer in the reign of Edward I; a particular brigand or hired ruffian,’ Hughes 2012 identifies an earlier instance, catchpole ‘tax collector’, attested as early as 1225. We offer a reassessment of this latter form, arguing that in its earliest uses, it was not analyzed as a compound in English but rather was treated as an unanalyzable lexical item, even if this compound type became somewhat productive a few centuries later.