[PW] What type of word is "inasmuch"?

[Jody Bailey]

Franco, Adrienne wrote:
> I think inasmuch is an example of a compound word.
>   
[snippage]

I agree.

[more snippage]
> and the open form, such as post office, real estate, middle class, full
> moon, half sister, attorney general.
>   

An aside: It's important to remember, however, that these open forms are 
often hyphenated to prevent ambiguity when they are used as modifiers. 
For example, most would hyphenate "real-estate office" (i.e., an office 
that deals in real estate) to prevent folks from misreading "real 
estate-office" (i.e., an estate office [noun phrase] that does real work 
-- granted, not a likely misreading, but anything that trips up the 
reader is Not A Good Thing).

The best reference for this is the Chicago Manual of Style, Table 6.1, 
"Spelling Guide for Compound Words and Words with Prefixes and Suffixes" 
(I have the 14th ed., and it's Table 6.1 in there -- the 15th may have 
it numbered differently).

Much more than you all wanted to know, I'm sure.

Jody
*****************
Jody Bailey
MLIS student, Wayne State U. (and former copyeditor)
Rochester Hills, MI, USA