DUONYMS

Our language is inadequate to describe our changing experience. Duonyms are one natural way that our language can adapt to describe new experiences and new technologies. Words like "airplane," "skateboard," "hamburger," "bellbottom," "bluejeans," and "superstar" have come into being in the past 150-200 years, and some much more recently. Our experiences change, our technology changes, and the way we experience the world changes. This is why we need duonyms!... Another point is that language is not static like a mountain; it changes continuously like the ocean. Duonyms provide a way to accommodate the changing nature of language. Duonyms often start as two different words. Then as something becomes important enough to require its own name, or changes in a way to require a unique name, the two words are put together to form a duonym. They may even go through a hyphenation stage. "Typewriter" is a good example. Originally, in the mid-1800s, was written as two words, though sometimes they..