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The only example I can currently think of is from the Spawn comic book. The compound word “Hellspawn” may be split two different ways:

  • Hell spawn (creature born of Hell)
  • Hell’s pawn (a minor figure manipulated by more powerful demons)

I am searching for other words similar to Hellspawn but not so, well, Hellish. I’d like to use a similar play on words. Knowing the term would improve my search.

Hellspawn above is a cheat, in that the apostrophe is implied. I’d like to find a word without such a cheat.

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  • Related
    – Justin
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 18:45
  • This one too
    – Justin
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 18:45
  • A superset of these (where one reading may be just a free combination, a non-collocated phrase) comprise a favourite of crossword compilers. I've a book listing types of clue somewhere, but I think it will only give a hypernym (if that). It's a virtual certainty that he's a strange child (4,2) is one of the larger set.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 18:48
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    @Justin is right; possible duplicate of Term for a word that is unintentionally made up of two or more other words? (where coleopterist dredges up 'redivider', and others other terms (eg 'false segmentation'). Only the same answers would occur here. And I must find some different crosswords to do.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 18:56

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You mean like saying "Godspeed" can be "God speed" or "Gods peed"?

Yeah, there's a word for that. "Gods peed" would be a homophone of "Godspeed," but there's not a specific word or term for a compound word that has been erroneously split as if it were a compound of different words then it actually is a compound of.

Also, when a compound word arises out of a possessive case, the apostrophe is eliminated, examples include "wolfsbane" from "wolf's bane" and "monkshood" from "monk's hood."

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    ""Gods peed"?" OMG I can't believe you wrote that.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 23:49

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