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12
A una persona con pocos conocimientos se le dice coloquialmente "burro". Un "mataburros" es literalmente algo que elimina a los burros y de ahí que (en Argentina, por ejemplo) al diccionario se le diga "mataburros" pues ayuda a suprimir burros, es decir, personas sin conocimientos. Un caso similar sucede con "tumbaburros" que es otra de las maneras ...
7
According to the RAE's dictionary, "mataburros" means dictionary only in Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Uruguay and Venezuela; "tumbaburros", as you said, only in Mexico.
Since "burro" is also used to refer to ignorant/rude/uncivil people, the "mataburro" becomes an object that "kills" those kind of people.
4
Yes.
I'm listing a few examples from this link (Palabras compuestas):
Noun + noun = noun: mapamundi
Noun + adjective = noun & adjective: pelirrojo
Adjective + noun = noun: mediodía
Verb + verb = noun: tejemaneje
Edit: This Wikipedia article also has more examples.
Edit 2:
I've found another composition:
Verb + pronoun + verb = noun: ...
3
I have always loved this one, since I first read it in Mafalda as a child: correveidile.
It's a whole sentence in one word.
2
Some used in Colombia:
Cogeculos: Some situations become a cogeculos when they get out of control. For example: Se armó un cogeculos tremendo.
Chiflamicas: A really bad musician. I believe it's the composition of chiflar/silvar (whistle) and micas (mico, perhaps?) Couldn't find anything on Google that would explain how the word came into existence but ...
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