Adnoun
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: this page needs to use different words to be more formal. (November 2020) |
Adnoun is a linguistic term used with two different meanings.
Hyponym of adjective[]
An adnoun is a kind of lexical category. In English, it is a word that is usually an adjective, but is being used as a noun.[1][2] The origin of the word is thought to date to around 1763-1792.[2] Often these usages are simply identified as the noun form of the word.[citation needed]
Examples:
- "guide-dogs for the blind", "blind" is an adnoun because it stands in for the noun phrase "blind people"
- "tax cuts for the rich", "rich" is an adnoun because it stands in for the noun phrase "rich people"
Synonym of adjective[]
Adnoun is an alternative term, which is considered to be archaic, for adjective. As John Eliot states in his 1666 Indian Grammar Begun..., "An Adnoun is a part of Speech that attendeth upon a Noun, and signifieth the Qualification thereof."
References[]
- ^ "List of unusual words". The Phrontistery. Archived from the original on 7 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Adnoun". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
Categories:
- Syntactic entities
- Parts of speech
- Linguistic morphology stubs