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I know the etymology, and although it's listed as a noun, merriam-webster tells me the definition, but I want to know the name of this sort of adjective.

Wiktionary has it grouped as English Exocentric compound phrases, but that's quite what I'm looking for.

Another example is the title of this book: Don't Make Me Use My High School Teacher Voice, or the term 'Big-Boy pants', like "Time to put on your 'big boy' pants."

Rather than use a straightforward adjective like "Seductive look" or "Annoyed" they use circumlocutionary language evoke a more complicated and particular situation, circumstance or role.

But is there a specific term for this type of adjective?

AncientSwordRage
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  • Not technical, but to me they're imagery. The rule in film and writing is show, don't tell. It's more dynamic to describe a face (come-hither) than to label it seductive. – Yosef Baskin May 31 '22 at 16:15
  • @YosefBaskin that describes, but I don't think that's actual terminology. – AncientSwordRage May 31 '22 at 16:18
  • Those examples show different things. "high-school teaching voice" is better English. Using "teach" there just sounds ignorant. – Lambie May 31 '22 at 16:30
  • But @Lambie, "high-school teaching voice" misses the entire point of the phrase. – AncientSwordRage Jun 01 '22 at 00:23
  • high-school-teach voice is pretty meaningless to me. I think you need the ing there. – Lambie Jun 03 '22 at 19:34
  • @Lambie I'm not sure where you're getting just "high-school-teach" from or how you're missing the "-er" at the end that makes it "high-school-teacher"...? – AncientSwordRage Jun 03 '22 at 19:37
  • Originally, you had it in the title. That's where....OK for: high-school-teacher voice – Lambie Jun 03 '22 at 19:39
  • @Lambie ahhh sorry I didn't realise I made the initial typo or that somebody fixed it for me. Apologies! – AncientSwordRage Jun 04 '22 at 02:23
  • @AncientSwordRage No worries. By the way, I had answered this question, it only got one vote, then the question was asked again, and everybody again agreed with what I consider to be slightly inaccurate. Some are adjectives that are compound, others are full-on sentences. I call the latter extended adjectives, based on an article I found on them. :) – Lambie Jun 04 '22 at 13:39

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