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I am trying to write a review of a text.
I am trying to understand the context of two phrases: "spider-man" and "human spider".
Do they mean different things?
Although these two words were used interchangeably in the movie "Spiderman" (2002), I have a feeling that, grammatically, "spider-man" means "a human with spider properties". On the other hand, "human spider" means "a spider with human properties".
Am I right or wrong?
‘Human anything’ tends to be human first (eg human dynamo, human torch).
Other combinations often go the other way (eg motor vehicle is a vehicle, tree kangaroo is a kangaroo, beach house is a house).
I suppose, although I understand this is going rather awry from your distinct question on grammatical-context, the kenning phrase of: "human-like spider", "an arachnidian human", a "spiderly man" or a "spider-like human" (humanoid), would befit a much more harmonious, poetically sounding rendition, if anyone ever wished to creatively write on such a basis, of a particular figure or man who seemed to possess uncanny qualities of a spider or visa-versa, and with a more easing certainty that the reader would not think of the Marvel superhero, but rather the distinct depiction of such a character.
P.S. once again, please pardon me for diverting away from your particular question but I thought I would write this down if anyone ever came on the sight, who desired to write a story and desired another opinion on the concept of wondering on the "spider-man" distinction of whether it connotates distinctly to a spider-like quality.
No.
The term human spider includes women. It is at least a tenable argument that the term spider-man does not.
Of course, traditionalists like myself would consider the word man can include women, e.g.
But the comic book character to which Spiderman refers, has a female counterpart, Spiderwoman. Admittedly this lacks the hyphenation of the question, but hyphenation seems to be a matter of style, so the average reader would infer a sexual difference.
"Spiderman" is, of course, a proper noun, the name of the character. "Spider-man" would (like "human spider") be merely a description of the hero. Presumably, in the movie, you cannot tell if any uses would contain a hyphen (unless the subtitles clarify things), so it should be assumed that any use of "Spiderman" is referring to the character's name.
