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"Vocabulary words" is one of my pet peeves. The word "vocabulary" is a noun not an
adjective. You only need to say ''vocabulary''. Why do some people say ''vocabulary
words''? I've even heard some English teachers tell their students to write down
their ''vocabulary words''.
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Here in your example, it seems <vocabulary> has been nominalised, perhaps so merged
as in *<vocabularyword>. If this is acceptable, then <vocabulary> might be considered
functioning as an insistence prefix or else a compound noun, not an adjective. Is
<vocabulary words> perceived as a quasi-pleonasm or does it convey new meaning ?
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I find no problem with "vocabulary word." Insisting people never say "vocabulary
word" seems somewhat pedantic.
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I'm just guessing, but maybe the expression 'vocabulary words' (with its Latin Germanic
combination) originated when education consisted mostly of learning Latin. At one
time it may have been 'vocabularium words', the words from the Latin vocabulary list
that have been assigned to be learned.
I can understood, though, how the modern expression 'write down your vocabulary words'
might seem unnecessarily _wordy_. :-) Usually just saying 'write down your words'
would get the idea across (because the students have that as a routine task and know
which words are intended). 'Vocabulary words' makes that understanding explicit by
referring to the words on the list.
'Writing down your words' alone could mean any kind of words (e.g., the words you
have to say in the class play or -- in the context of a court -- the transcript of
your trial). 'Writing down your vocabulary' typically means the words you need to
learn, but it could mean the words that are characteristic of your speech and writing.
In any case 'vocabulary words' seems to be firmly established, so if you're going
to resist it, your work is cut out for you. A Google search shows it on 392,000 pages,
many of them on educational sites.
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