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I have an extensive background in linguistics and taught it before. At no time was there ever a ""compound"" in English in which they were two words. Compounds are single words, not phrases. The whole concept of ""compounding"" is merging two words together as one. By definition, ""a compound is a lexeme"", and lexemes do not have spaces in the middle of them. An item with a space is a ""phrase"". 2. As I proved above, it does not. 3. Many sources say otherwise. There was a whole section devoted to listed references. Look under ""Scope"" and you can see where it lists references provided.   "