word order - Preferred list ordering





What are the principles that make certain lists sound euphonious?
Name for a type of idiom with two things joined (like “raining cats and dogs”, “bread and butter”)



Is there a word to describe a preferred order in which we describe a list of items (usually two items)?


The following examples illustrate my question better:



"Mom and Dad" ("Dad and Mom" is equally correct but sounds wrong)


"Big And Tall" (In AmE/Culture, this refers to a clothing retailer for larger people; It's never a "Tall And Big" store)


"Food And Drink"


"Black and Blue", "Black and White" (these may just be expressions versus being lists)



There are certainly others but I can't think of them now.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

verbs - "Baby is creeping" vs. "baby is crawling" in AmE

commas - Does this sentence have too many subjunctives?

time - English notation for hour, minutes and seconds

grammatical number - Use of lone apostrophe for plural?

etymology - Origin of "s--t eating grin"

etymology - Where does the phrase "doctored" originate?

word choice - Which is the correct spelling: “fairy” or “faerie”?