Do compounds exist in Spanish which are not nouns or are nouns other than than of the form (3ps verb + pl noun)?

Question

In Romance languages, compound words are much rarer than in Germanic language such as English, but they do exist.

My favourite kind of word formation in Spanish is the one that results in words such as abrebotellas and espantapájaros which are made by compounding a verb in the third person present singular indicative with a plural noun.

But are there other kinds of compound words in Spanish? I'm sure there are but after wracking my brain all I could come up with was quemarropa which is about as close as you can get to the kind I just described.

Do other kinds of compound exist in Spanish?

(I'm not looking for a complete list, just a yes no answer with either a couple of examples or link or reference with further reading.)

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 22 '16 at 08:40

12

Yes.

I'm listing a few examples from this link (Palabras compuestas):

Noun + noun = noun: mapamundi
Noun + adjective = noun & adjective: pelirrojo
Adjective + noun = noun: mediodía
Verb + verb = noun: tejemaneje
Verb + pronoun + verb = noun: hazmerreír (more triple combinations here)

The Wikipedia article Composición (lingüística) also has more examples.

edited Aug 22 '16 at 08:40

fedorqui

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answered Dec 08 '11 at 14:47

dusan

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I have a feeling there are even some prepositions or adverbs which are compounds but, again I can't think of any so I might be wrong. – hippietrail Dec 08 '11 at 14:51
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Like 'sinvergüenza', 'contrasentido'? – dusan Dec 08 '11 at 14:53
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tentempié: verb + pronoun + preposition + noun. – Peter Taylor Jan 02 '12 at 13:55

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 29 '11 at 07:54

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I have always loved this one, since I first read it in Mafalda as a child: correveidile.
It's a whole sentence in one word.

answered Dec 29 '11 at 07:54

MikMik

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+1 Nice one, I love it! – César Dec 30 '11 at 15:50
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+1 Indeed, nice word! – Icarus Dec 30 '11 at 15:58

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 21 '16 at 20:46

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Some used in Colombia:

Cogeculos: Some situations become a cogeculos when they get out of control. For example: Se armó un cogeculos tremendo.
Chiflamicas: A really bad musician. I believe it's the composition of chiflar/silbar (whistle) and micas (mico, perhaps?) Couldn't find anything on Google that would explain how the word came into existence but definitely looks like a composition of 2 words.

Some others:

edited Aug 21 '16 at 20:46

DGaleano

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answered Dec 08 '11 at 15:24

Icarus

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In Perú, Cogeculos would definitely lower your reputation with the ladies :) – César Dec 30 '11 at 15:54

Do compounds exist in Spanish which are not nouns or are nouns other than than of the form (3ps verb + pl noun)?

3 Answers3

Yes.