Why English language is sometimes "lazy", sometimes not

lnxtx@feddit.nl to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 39 points –

(non-native speaker)

Is there a reason why the English language has "special" words for a specific topic, like related to court (plaintiff, defendant, warrant, litigation), elections/voting (snap election, casting a ballot)?

And in other cases seems lazy, like firefighter, firetruck, homelessness (my favorite), mother-in-law, newspaper.

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A plaintiff, for example, is the person lodging a complaint. Doesn't have to be a legal complaint, but in legal terms it makes it very clear who we're talking about.

I think the OP was wondering why that person wouldn't just be called a complaintlodger. Like with firefighter.

A quick "rule" is to see how old the word/concept is. "plaintiff" would have existed almost as long as the English legal system came into being, or probably even older to the court of Assizes pre-12th century.

Whereas firefighter as a profession might have only become a word after the establishment of fire departments by insurance companies, which I think might have been a 19th century development.