Dvandva

A dvandva ('pair' in Sanskrit) is a linguistic compound in which multiple individual nouns are concatenated to form an agglomerated compound word in which the conjunction has been elided to form a new word with a distinct semantic field.

Examples include: Dvandvas should not be confused with agglutination, which also concatenates words but is a different process.

The first, and most common kind, the itaretara (

The resultant compound word is in the dual or plural depending on the total number of described individuals.

Examples: Compare Modern Greek ανδρόγυνο /anˈðɾoʝino/ "husband and wife" or μαχαιροπίρουνο /maçeɾoˈpiɾuno/ "cutlery" (literally "knife-forks"), similarly always in the neuter singular (plural marking would refer to several couples or cutlery sets).