Grammar question: Troubling Unchildhood Behavior

So... unchildhood, at least according to spellcheck, is not a word. Is it supposed to be "Troubling Childhood Behavior" or "Troubling Unchildlike Behavior?"

Although, "unchildlike" isn't a word either, apparently, so...

Hm, agree.

Un- is a common English prefix that can be applied to all sorts of words. That said, "unchildhood" is awkward and sounds like something else entirely. Perhaps the early years of a creature created full-grown might be described as an "unchildhood".

I think unchildlike (or maybe non-childlike) is fine.

Better question: unchildlike or unchildish?

edited 3rd Sep '11 4:45:59 PM by NativeJovian

-like for me.

Childlike seems to fit the context of the trope better.

I always thought it was Troubling Unchildlike Behavior. Now that I actually think about it, the current name makes no sense at all. Count me in favor of the switch.

I personally would say that "childhood" makes more sense, but either one works for me...

It really should be "unchildlike." Even if you consider "unchildhood" a valid construction, it makes more sense to use the adjective here.

Unchildlike would be much better.

Unchildlike makes more grammatical sense, and seems to be an actual recognized word.

I think what USAF 713 was suggesting was dropping the "un-" entirely and using Troubling Childhood Behavior. That may be too broad, but at least it makes sense! :)

I prefer "unchildlike".

Unchildlike.

(For me unchildish sounds and feels wrong; commonly childish -> immature so unchildish -> not immature? Not quite right.)

Unchildhood needs to be chased up a burning tree.

Seems like most people support a rename. Does somebody want to add a crowner so we can move forward?

Crowner made and hooked.

A search for

"unchildhood" -"troubling unchildhood" -tropes

gets 46 results, not counting omitted results.

Dictionary.com gets no results. Wiktionary gets no results. Urban Dictionary gets not results.

So yeah, not much room for arguing to keep the nonword.

Oh for the love of...

The OP based his reasoning on spellcheck. Spellcheck is a terrible way to determine the validity of a word. Hell, Chrome's spellcheck doesn't consider "spellcheck" a word. And near as I can tell, most everyone else is taking their cues from him.

Most languages are flexible, and the beauty of them is that you can string several elements together to create a completely made-up word that people will still intuitively recognize the meaning of.

Admittedly, this is another relic from the old, quirky days, and "unchildlike" would probably be more correct than "unchildhood", but this seems like a really anal reason for a name change. (Then again, it probably wouldn't be the first time...) If we're going to change the name I'd prefer a more wholesale change.

Morgan, if you can provide a dictionary citation for Unchildhood, I'd be perfectly willing to change my vote in favor of the current name.

If this trope is about a child troublingly acting like an adult, Troubling Unchildlike Behavior would be fine (or, better, Troubling Precociousness).

The page quote and image seem to imply something else. They imply that this trope is about troubling behavior such as murder or creeping out animals, behavior troubling in itself, and only more troubling because it's a child. If this is the trope, "unchildlike" is misleading; it's unchildlike, but it's also close to inhuman. Troubling Childhood Behavior would be accurate - the behavior is troubling, and the character exhibits it during childhood.

But maybe the image and quote are the misleading parts, and this trope really is Troubling Precociousness.

edited 9th Sep '11 11:32:40 AM by Routerie

Well, Wick, I didn't actually base my reasoning off spellcheck. I based my reasoning off the fact that it isn't a word at all, and that there are better ways to do it.

It's a bad title because it's an incorrect term and there are better terms. It's not like we're removing the meaning or even changing it that much. We're just correcting our grammar. I thought that was a rather important thing.

I also concur... again... that I like "childhood" instead of "unchildlike" but I think the majority disagrees, so...

I just don't like childhood because we've had people insist straight face that childhood means the trope can only apply to flashbacks and that if the character is currently a child they don't count for the trope. This has happened multiple times with multiple tropes.

~shrug~

Don't Shoot the Message. That's just interpreting the trope incorrectly (unless of course that's the definition, but I doubt it here).

I mean, unchildlike works, and I've certainly heard it before in common conversation. I simply prefer "childhood."

It's the title seems to encourage misuse. We've had people misusing tropes with Childhood in the title because they said Childhood before and I don't want another round of it.

To each his own.