Why do we say "a one-legged man", with a final -ed, but also say "a one-person job" without?

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Why do we say "a one-legged man", with a final "-ed", but also say "a one-person job" without the "-ed"? We also say:

A two-minute walk.

A six-hour flight.

But then we say:

A green-eyed woman

Black-eyed peas

When I think about it, it seems to me the pattern with a final -d/-ed suggests the idea of having, as in having green eyes. But this theory doesn't seem to work with some other compound adjectives like:

A two-storey building

It should be two-storeyed because it means made of or having two storeys.

Sara

Posted 2018-09-18T19:06:36.093

Reputation: 3 714

Related: Why is it that a noun can be added with -ed?

– ColleenV – 2018-09-18T22:40:23.877

Answers

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The past participle formed from a part of the body(eye, arm, leg, foot, etc) means "having said body part", as you say; a number in front indicates how many there are:

a three-legged stool

a one-eyed pirate

a four-armed deity

a seven-headed dragon

a three-headed dog

With units of measure we do not do this; rather we use the unit of measure in the singular:

a twelve-inch ruler

a six-hour flight

With buildings, storey can be understood as unit of measure or as a component of the building, so that both are possible:

a ten-storey building

three-storeyed terraces

storeyed dwellings

P.S. In American English, storey can be spelled storey or story.

Tᴚoɯɐuo

Posted 2018-09-18T19:06:36.093

Reputation: 116 610

But "Storyed" is wrong in any dialect of English. – Beanluc – 2018-09-18T22:12:05.277

This would be improved by addressing the specific example given, and pointing out that "person" is being used as a measure of how big the job is (not as a countable property of the job). – Beanluc – 2018-09-18T22:15:27.680

@Beanluc: Go for it. Then it would be a two-answered question. Or would that be two-answer question? Hmmm... – Tᴚoɯɐuo – 2018-09-18T22:22:39.027

2Technically, it's a bit wider than just number. You can also say "a blue-eyed pirate", "a bare-legged person", etc. – Laurel – 2018-09-18T22:58:20.273

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@Beanluc https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/storeyed Having the stated number of storeys (building levels)

– CJ Dennis – 2018-09-19T00:20:30.007

1A good example might be "A one-man boat" vs "a manned boat". The implication in the second in this case would be that someone is currently in the boat. – Roland Heath – 2018-09-19T01:42:19.517

@Beanluc Really?

– John – 2018-09-19T02:23:27.267

I disagree with storey as "American English". Can't say I've ever seen this spelling (besides as a typo) and ngrams seems to agree https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=storey%2Cstory&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1500&year_end=1800&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cstorey%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BStorey%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bstorey%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cstory%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bstory%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BStory%3B%2Cc0

– MichaelChirico – 2018-09-19T06:05:29.557

1@Beanluc "Storyed" is, but "storied" isn't (as usual). – trolley813 – 2018-09-19T06:52:38.917

1@Roland Heath: Interesting example with the manned and one-man boat. I think manned, while it could indeed mean "with human beings operating it or on it currently", is not limited to that very specific meaning; the sense of "currently" is imparted by context. Compare "manned vehicle" versus "unmanned vehicle", where "unmanned" means "designed so that there are no humans on board" and "manned" means "designed so that one or more human operators must be on board". Context tells us whether there is an implication of "currently" or "at this moment". – Tᴚoɯɐuo – 2018-09-19T11:42:08.837

Storied or storeyed, right. Not storyed. – Beanluc – 2018-09-19T15:33:01.633

Asked: 2018-09-18T19:06:36.093

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