ˌkərməˈdärēə, -ärəyə noun
( -s )
Etymology: Sanskrit karmadhāraya, from karma- (from karman ) + dhāraya that holds, that maintains; perhaps from the fact that such words maintain the same function throughout, inasmuch as the syntactic function of the entire compound is the same as the syntactic function of its final constituent would be if used alone; akin to Sanskrit dhārayati he holds, carries, keeps — more at firm
: a class of compound words typically having a noun as second constituent and a descriptive adjective as first constituent (as bluegrass, blackberry ), a noun as second constituent and an attributive noun as first constituent (as houseboat ), or an adjective as second constituent and an adverb as first constituent (as everlasting, widespread ) and having meanings that follow the formula “a B that is A ” for nouns or “ B in the manner expressed by A ” for adjectives, where A stands for the first constituent and B for the second ; also : a compound word belonging to this class