I'm trying to recall a term that describes a word pair (or compound
word) where neither word has anything to do with the object being
described (which, for now, I will call "compound misnomers" - examples
below). The answer to this question is simply a single English word
that describes what I'm looking for (and I know that this word exists;
I have known it but have forgotten it).

But I want to clarify what I'm NOT looking for:

The term "oxymoron" describes a self-contradictory word-pair (usually
a pair), such as "jumbo shrimp," or "wireless cable," or "deafening
silence."

The term "misnomer" is somewhat generalized - it could apply to a
single (misapplied) word, or prehaps a word-pair where only one term
is misapplied. For example, the phrase "Boxing Ring" might be
considered a misnomer (because it's not shaped like a ring, but it is
used for boxing).  Or "eggplant" (which contains no egg, but is a
plant).

But there's another, more specific word which describes "compound
misnomers" such as "Grape Nuts" (neither grape nor nuts), or perhaps
"guinea pig" (neither from Guinea nor a pig).  Or, perhaps
compound-word nouns such as "pineapple" (which has nothing to do with
either pines or apples).

There is a term that describes these "compound misnomers." Can anyone
tell me what that term is?

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 15 Mar 2004 01:52 PST

Could you be thinking of "caconym"?
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/onyms.htm

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Clarification of Question by david_filmer-ga on 17 Mar 2004 23:15 PST

Thanks to all for your comments, but I'm still looking...

"caconym" is not specific to a "compound misnomer" (a descriptive
compound word or word-pair where neither word has anything to do with
the object being described).

The word I'm looking for would describe "pineapple" (nothing to do
with pines or apples) but not "eggplant" (nothing to do with eggs, but
is a plant).

A "kerned" phrase does apply to the object, but in a roundabout way.
You may not know what a "whale road" is, but once you learn that it
means "ocean" you understand.

"Grape Nuts" would not be a kerned phrase. It would be impossible to
guess that it was a breakfast cereal, and once you know what it means,
you still don't understand how the name applies to the object.

Silva Rhetoricae, "The Forest of Rhetoric," is a VERY interesting site
(http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/). However, I was unable to find
the figure for "compound misnomer" on the site. Oddly enough, I was
not able to find the term "misnomer" on the site, which seemed strange
- maybe "misnomer" is not, strictly speaking, a rhetorical term, but
it's "close enough" that I would have thought it included in the
"forest."

I've sent a message to the maintainer of Silva Rhetoricae, Gideon O.
Burton (who is obviously a language guru)... if he can provide any
input, I'll post it here.

The only categories that occur to me are;

portmanteau words; and neologisms

But these don't fit your criteria.

Charade

No, not the party game!  Grammatically, a charade is a word formed by
concatenating (adding together) two or more other words, as in the
examples in the original question.

Larus

This might also be a variant of the Old Norse 'kenning' and the first
modern day example that came to mind is 'skyscraper.'

"Kenning compound expression, often hyphenated, representing a single
noun. For example, the Old English epic Beowulf uses the two-word term
whale-road to refer to the sea or ocean. Other examples of kennings
include devil's helper for sinner and widow-maker for gun."
 
http://sites.micro-link.net/zekscrab/RoyalLine.html

"A kenning is a two-word metaphor, used to symbolically identify
creatures, objects and phenomena. It gives one an expressive image of
the object without naming it directly."

"Kenning: The term derives from the use of the Old Norse verb kenna
'to know, recognize'?It is a device for introducing descriptive colour
or for suggesting associations without distracting attention from the
essential statement.  Essentially a kenning is a compact metaphor that
functions as a name or epithet; it is also, in its more complex forms,
a riddle in miniature."

http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=410

Silva Rhetoricae, "The Forest of Rhetoric," is the best site I've
found so far for literary terms and rhetorical figures.  Perhaps the
term you want is one of those listed at the right.

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/

Apteryx

I'd be curious to hear what Gideon Burton has to say. He IS a guru of
rhetoric. I can personally vouch for him--I had him as a professor of
a class dealing with the rhetoric of Shakespeare. Class time seemed to
pass so quickly. He is fascinating!

Sincerely,
Boquinha-ga

Hi David,

That would be very kind of you to post if you have any luck locating
this term.  Your question has come up in conversational circles, so
it's not the first time I've looked for it -- always without success. 
I agree with you on the roundaboutness of a 'kenning' but I felt it
had the puzzlement/riddle factor covered.  Plus it was the closest
figurative language term I could find.  Synonyms for 'kenning' also
yielded not a pineapple's worth of fruit.  These word questions on GA
get under skin, so I'll keep looking with you.

In addition to Silva Rhetoricae, I've also been working my way through these sites:
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms.html
http://www.gho-englisch.de/Courses%20Br/GK_En_01-03/Shakespeare/literary_terms.htm
http://rinkworks.com/words/linguistics.shtml

You might also try contacting Sam Glucksberg at Princeton.  
http://www.princeton.edu/~psych/PsychSite/fac_glucksberg.html
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/1101/speaking.html

Gideon Burton (the maintainer of Silva Rhetoricae,
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric) kindly responded to a direct
inquiry e-mail, and provided this input...

>> David:
>> Thanks for checking my website for your question. Silva Rhetoricae is based
>> on terms from classical and renaissance rhetoric, and so does not include
>> many important and common rhetorical terms that have evolved via modern
>> linguistics or rhetorical studies.

>> I know of no single term to name what you describe. I would consider it a
>> sort of double antilogy (rather than double misnomer), as antilogy suggests
>> not a mistake but an opposition to semantic content, as you seem to
>> describe. Certainly you are looking at a use of paradox, and though oxymoron
>> (compressed paradox) does not fully explain what you describe, I think it
>> partly does (in the sense of the unexpected juxtaposition of words in a
>> provocative fashion). Perhaps I would call what you are describing a kind of
>> paradoxical antilogy pair, or an oxymoronic antilogical pairing. Mouthfuls,
>> to be sure.  Let me know if you discover a single term for this; I would be
>> interested to know.

Wow - this guy knows his stuff.

Hmmmm. I'm pretty sure that I knew (but have forgotten) a single term
which would describe the word combination I've described, but now I'm
beginning to wonder if my memory is faulty, or (more likely) I was (at
the time) mistaken about the true meaning of that term that I can't
recall (ie, if I could remember it, and looked it up, I would find
that it didn't quite mean what I thought it meant).

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing the feedback. Hmmmmm, then
perhaps YOU can coin the term (whatever term you want!) for this
rhetorical device!

Regards,
Boquinha-ga

May I suggest that this illustrious site now gives birth to the much
sought after word?

Let's call it a VIDFIL.

Can't think how we managed without it.