ABSTRACT
Compounds containing particles may be nominal, adjectival, verbal or adverbial, and an arrangement of examples according to word-class is not entirely convenient since many nouns have corresponding verbs and participial adjectives. As far as nominal constructions are concerned, the question only arises with compounds of class IA, in which a non-derived noun is the second element and the particle functions to some extent like an attributive adjective. With combinations of preposition and noun used adverbially, it may be in doubt as to whether people have to do with compounds or free phrases. Combinations of verb and particle are of course extremely numerous in English. The OED gives a number of phrases formed on this pattern with the general meaning 'to outdo the agent in his own sphere or work', the majority from the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.
