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by SilverElfin 15 days ago
> a kind of international finance man cum-captain of industry (perhaps best embodied by Sam Altman)

What the hell is a “cum-captain”? Search isn’t helping.

2 comments

Probably this: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cum

I.e. finance man as well as captain of industry

the correct usage is dashes on both sides of the word, the usage above was extra confusing because it was incorrect
As in cum-"captain of industry"
non native speaker here - I don't get it.
It's an old English word (predating the sexual connotation):

cum - Used in indicating a thing or person which has two or more roles, functions, or natures, or which has changed from one to another.

Basically nobody uses that language construct anymore until you run headlong into it in a Hackernews comment or something

I use it, but you're supposed to hyphenate on both sides so this usage was incorrect.
thank you! this was most helpful to lead me into asking the right question.

https://share.google/aimode/dDekJEZzfKaE6FCvH

“cum” (rhymes with “broom”, rather than “dumb”) is Latin for “with”.
that's when it appears cum "laude" (eg)

in commonwealth (seniors in everyday UK, HR and pedants otherwise) usage it rhymes with dumb, like you'd expect

https://youtu.be/RzESsmv5FhM

Radcliff-cum-Chackmore

No it isn't. It's Latin.
only the ethymology is latin. the use combining role names is old English, indeed.
'cum' is latin for 'with', and it is commonly hyphenated when inserted in between other words.

It's also a slang word for semen, but that's not relevant here.

I suspect they mean "with" but in latin. But I'm not entirely sure.
That's correct