Talk:next door

Tea room discussion

Note: the below discussion was moved from the Wiktionary:Tea room.

What's the POS of this term? It's currently listed as an adverb, but it seems to me like it should be an adjective. Quite frankly, it almost seems like a noun which is basically always used as an adjectival noun (i.e. the next-door neighbors = the neighbors who live at the next door over). But, to be honest, I'm a but puzzled by this, and so I thought I'd get some more opinions. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 20:50, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

It seems to me that it can be an adverb: I went next door to borrow some sugar. DCDuring TALK 21:16, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

next door is the adverb, next-door is the adjective. SemperBlotto 22:11, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the discussion above. --EncycloPetey 01:30, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Maddeningly, all three spellings, nextdoor, next-door, and next door, are used for both adjective and adverb. DCDuring TALK 02:11, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

I always thought of "I went next door" as a a noun—it's where I went to. It definitely can be a noun too: "he came from next door". "Nextdoor" seems to me like a misspelling of the adjective next-door". —Michael Z. 2008-06-08 14:19 z

"He came from next door" doesn't necessarily mean it's a nominal; (deprecated template usage) from frequently takes adverbials as its complements, such as in "He came from atop the roof", "He came from over there", etc. Can you say "He went over to next door"? "He's at next door"? (Note: my test don't necessarily say one way or the other, either. I think the right answer is that this is primarily adverbial, but that English is flexible with its parts of speech; but that doesn't tell us how to include it.) —Ruakh_TALK 14:34, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't object to characterizing nextdoor as a misspelling, but it seems fairly common even in books. In the US especially, compounds seem more likely to be spelled "solid". The on-line dictionaries don't have nextdoor as an entry. DCDuring TALK 14:59, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Would we call 'nextdoor non-standard, since it doesn't seem to appear in dictionaries? —Michael Z. 2008-06-10 03:39 z

Is that an alternative spelling, tagged as nonstandard? That would seem to reflect the facts. DCDuring TALK 03:56, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Sounds good.—msh210℠ 18:58, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

In "I went next door" there is no way for it to be a noun, since go is never transitive. In "I'll go home" home is not a noun either! You just admitted it - "it's where I went to", ergo adverb. Bogorm 16:34, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

next but one

next but one is idiomatic enough to be added as is last but one --Backinstadiums (talk) 12:13, 11 February 2020 (UTC)