Friday, August 21, 2009

Hollywood, a compound word?

(My dissertation is going to be on compound words, so I'm kinda obsessed with the subject)

I love watching movies. Tonight, I'm going to see Inglorious Bastards. Just couple weeks ago, I was overly excited about District 9. And, while reading up just about anything I could find about this so un-Hollywood movie from South Africa, I realized that the word "Hollywood" is actually two words: holly and wood.

I guess when the area got named there may have been a lot of holly trees there, but today, most people would probably just think of the American movie industry when they hear the word. At least I know that this was the first time for me to consciously access "holly" and "wood" from this proper name.

It's like when I first realized that the word "wardrobe" means a ward for robes, only, the meanings of the words "holly" and "wood" have nothing to do with what "Hollywood" stands for nowadays. It's not really a compound word. Just like Blackberry isn't a fruit.

Will need to add more words that can be further divided that no longer serve their literal meanings here.

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