Compound
Etymology
From Latin "componere" — "com" (together) plus "ponere" (to put), "to put together." The chemical sense specifies a true bond, not a loose mingling.
The compound meaning a walled enclosure is a separate word — from Malay "kampung" (village, enclosure), reshaped by English folk etymology into a familiar-looking word.
noun · /KOM-pownd/
A substance formed when two or more elements bond chemically in fixed proportions, with properties unlike its ingredients.
What it names
The fact that combining elements creates something genuinely new — table salt from a metal that reacts violently with water and a poisonous green gas.
Example
Sodium is an explosive metal and chlorine a toxic gas, yet the compound they form is ordinary table salt.
Related idea
A compound is chemically bonded in fixed ratios; a mixture is just physically combined and separable. Salt water is a mixture — you can boil the water off — but the salt itself is a compound.
noun · /KOM-pownd/
An enclosed area containing a group of buildings, especially a residence or base surrounded by a wall or fence.
What it names
A walled cluster of structures — an embassy or family compound — and comes from a different root (a Malay word for an enclosure) than the chemical sense.
Example
The family lived together in a gated compound outside the city.
Related idea
What defines it is the perimeter — a wall or fence enclosing several buildings, as in an embassy or family compound — sharing only its spelling with the chemically bonded substance, and rooted in a Malay word for an enclosure.
verb · /kum-POWND/
To make a problem or condition worse by adding to it; also, to grow by repeatedly building on itself.
What it names
Accumulation that feeds on itself — errors, difficulties, or interest that pile up and multiply rather than merely add.
Example
Missing the deadline only compounded an already tense situation.
Related idea
To exacerbate is simply to make worse; to compound adds the sense of multiplication — each addition builds on the last, as in compound interest, where interest earns interest.
adjective · /KOM-pownd/
Made up of two or more distinct parts or elements combined into one.
What it names
It flags something built from multiple components — a compound word, a compound fracture, a compound eye.
Example
‘Toothbrush’ is a compound word.
Related idea
A chemical compound (the noun) is one instance of this: several elements joined into a single thing. As an adjective it reaches far wider — grammar, medicine, biology — wherever parts combine into a unified whole.