Icecream in the Rain Forest

[Joseph Laferriere]

ICECREAM  IN  THE  RAIN  FOREST

by Dr. Joseph E. Laferriere
Biosphere 2
P.O. Box 689
Oracle AZ 85623 USA
520-896-6487
joseph at bio2.com

[permission is granted to pass this around as long as proper credit is given
to the author]

   Is the term "ice cream" one word or two? The answer to that question is:
yes. It is traditionally written as if it were two words, but from a
strictly grammatical point of view is is essentially one word spelled with a
space in the middle of it. It has a separate meaning not entirely implied by
the definitions of the componene elements. Also, "ice" is a noun, not an
adjective. If one were say "icy cream" or "iced cream," then one would be
using it as an adjective plus a noun, i.e. essentially two separate words.
It is treated grammatically as a single word in two ways. First, one cannot
break up the pair and retain the meaning. One can say "chocolate ice cream"
but not "ice chocolate cream." it can be used in compounds as a single word.
For example, in the phrase "the frozen yogurt-ice cream freezer,"  it seems
illogical to consider "frozen" as one word, "yogurt-ice" as a second word,
and "cream" as a third. "Frozen yogurt" and "ice cream" are the two elements
hyphenated into a compound term. "Frozen" is of course an adjective, but
"ice" is not. English has many other such terms as this, e.g. "New York,"
"Vice President," "roller derby," or "Queen of England" (as in "the Queen of
England's son Charles").
    The jury is still out on whether the term "rainforest" should be written
with a space in the middle of it or not. The popular press and technical
writings are inconsistent in this regard. The word matches the "ice cream"
analogy very well. The term "rain forest" has a definition not entirely
obvious from the definitions of the two component words. "Rain" is a noun,
not an adjective. One cannot say "rain tropical forest." One can, however,
make a compound such as "the rain forest-savannah boundary." Hence, the term
is gramatically a single unit whether it is spelled with a space in it or
not. This is not true of other similar terms like "dry forest" or "temperate
forest" because in each case there is an adjective preceeding the noun, not
another noun.
   The question "which is correct" is a moot point. Either way would be
consistent with the English language. Terms like "ice cream" are common
enough to provide a sufficient precedent for spelling this word as "rain
forest." My personal preference is to write a single word as a single word.
The time to make the decision is now, before the "rain forest" spelling
becomes too firmly entrenched in the language. I would recommend adoption of
"rainforest" as the proper spelling by all editors henceforth.
   Thank you very much for your kind attention. I hope I have stimulated a
bit of debate.