In Portuguese, the following phrases are defined [15]: Noun Phrase (NP), when the head of the phrase is a noun; Adjectival Phrase (AdjP), when the head of the phrase is an adjective; Verb Phrase (VP), when the head of the phrase is a verb; Prepositional Phrase (PP), when the head of the phrase is a preposition; Adverbial Phrase (AdvP), when the head of the phrase is an adverb.
He defined the noun as "the camp followers who have developed the skills of freeloading and gate-crashing to a fine art".
In "Burgess Unabridged: A New Dictionary of Words You Have Always Needed" (1914), he defined the noun as "fulsome praise; a sound like a publisher" and the verb — Jacobs may be interested to know — as "to flatter from interested motives; to compliment oneself".
In 1611, a French-English dictionary was published by Randle Cotgrave who defined the noun crosse as "the crooked staff wherewith boys play at cricket".
The O.E.D. has the first usage, of course, crediting the coiner Frank Mankiewicz cited in this column in 1980 for what I defined as "nouns that have taken an adjective to stay up to date and to fend off newer terms".
I would define the noun, confabulation, as "a jocular description of a pretentious talkfest".
The American Heritage College Dictionary, for example, defines the noun "Democratic Party" as "One of the two major US political parties, owing its origin to a split in the Democratic-Republican PAndrew Jacksonrew Jackson in 1828".
It is probably akin to the Sanskrit urja, "sap, strength," according to Merriam-Webster, which defines the noun as "an explosive discharge of neuromuscular tensions at the height of sexual arousal that is usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen in the male and by vaginal contractions in the female".
After a superlative, we can use an infinitive to further define the noun – much like a relative clause.
The Oxford Dictionary defines the noun 'patient' as 'a person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment'.
Ms Nicholson won the competition on 31 October with the word "obeisant", an adjective incorrectly defined as the noun "respect".
