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A comment on Why the German language has so many great words. Parent comment

Re:Why the German language has so many great words by dublinben on Friday March 11, 2016 @07:40PM (#11270665)
Because the word housewife is hundreds of years old, and middle school isn't. Over time, compound nouns drift closer. They start out as two words, are then joined by a hyphen, and then become a single concatenated word.
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Re:Why the German language has so many great words by kazinator on Friday March 11, 2016 @08:06PM (#11270751)
Etymonline corroborates you; it places the origin of "housewife" in the 13th century.

(You would think there was basically no other kind of wife until well into the Industrial Revolution.)

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Re:Why the German language has so many great words by usrusr on Saturday March 12, 2016 @08:15AM (#11272728)
Which kind of makes sense, since a housewife would not turn into a trailer wife when moving into one.
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