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Methinks 'methinks' is unique.
EmmettRedd
859 Posts
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2015/05/22 - 8:49am

According to the OxED methinks has a long and varied history and is considered a verb. But, my questions is, "Are there any other English words which are a combination of a separate full noun (or pronoun) with a full verb?" (Slurred words like in this thread don't count.)

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2
2015/05/22 - 9:52am

Methinks your question makes itself too easy by not specifying the 'part of speech' : in general adjectives and verbs are often compounds from noun and verb:  power-seek, steel-enforce, sharks-infest, mass-produce, hand-craft, etc. etc.

Methinks would be unique if categorized as adverb  (which it should be, more than anything else).  Then, it is even more special as the only adverb that is conjugatable: methought.

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3
2015/05/22 - 11:25am

As Robert suggests, there are lots of examples, and many require no hyphen. Would you consider babysit handwrite/ghostwrite nitpick joyride horsewhip sightsee? I'll add podcast, as a newer example. I'll throw in the debatable sleepwalk -- debatable, since you could parse sleep either as a noun or a verb.

deaconB
744 Posts
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4
2015/05/22 - 2:46pm

EmmettRedd said
According to the OxED methinks has a long and varied history and is considered a verb. 

It combines both the subject and the verb.  I can't think of others that do that in the first person (although I may be missing 32,767 of them!).

In the second person imperative, methinks that's the rule rather than the exception.  One tellls the dog "sic 'em", the drill sargeant orders the squad "March!" and Arthie Bunker tell Edith "Stifle!"

As for your question,a combination of a separate full noun (or pronoun) with a full verb seems to be pretty common.  Sailboat, workman, sawhorse and duckwalk come to mind easily. 

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