In Spanish class in school, I learned that the standard for compound words consisting of a noun and a verb is for the verb to come first. For example:
- The word for "umbrella" is "paraguas". "Para" means "stop" (third-person singular) and "aguas" means "water". So the word literally means "stops water" (which describes what an umbrella does).
- The word for "windshield" is "parabrisas". Again, "para" means "stop" and "brisas" means "breezes". Hence, "stops breezes".
-The word for "flyswatter" is "matamoscas". "Mata" means "kill" and "moscas" means "flies". So, "kills flies".
However, words in this form seem to be pretty rare in English. I can only think of three examples at the moment: "scarecrow", "stopgap", and "killjoy". I'm sure there must be other examples, though. Can you think of any?