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"something come something", or foo-come-bar

English Language & Usage Asked by Mr. Mastodon Farm on May 6, 2021

Is the bold construct below valid? Does it have a name? What sort of punctuation would you use for it?

Fnord, the something-come-such-and-so, was under development for a year or so. It suffered a redesign late last year to satisfy changing customer demands. We had a something on hand; customers wanted such-and-so.

I swear I’ve heard or read this construction before. It falls on my ear as old fashioned (dare I say “vintage”?), though not quite archaic.

One Answer

You're thinking of cum (/kʌm/), which means:

combined with; also used as (used to describe things with a dual nature or function): a study-cum-bedroom

It's also legal to use it without hyphenation:

The same applies to his long-running Korean-war vet cum knight errant.

Correct answer by Gnawme on May 6, 2021

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