hostage-taker

[Mark A. Mandel]

Barnhart <barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM> scripsit:

        >>>
I've since found:

census taker
opium taker
pleasure taker
pledge taker
tax taker
ticket taker

Nevertheless, these all seem somehow strange... awkward?
        <<<

Not at all, to me. The ticket taker's job is to take your ticket. A pledge
taker has taken "the pledge" -- quite possibly the pledge to abstain from
alcohol, grossly misnamed "temperance". An opium taker habitually takes
opium. A census taker takes the census. "Pleasure taker" sounds odd to me
out of context, but it might not sound odd in context, given the collocation
"take pleasure (in something)". Only "tax taker" sounds strange to me, and
this is the only one of these nominals for which I don't have a
corresponding verb + noun expression.

I find it hard to understand how any English speaker can find these strange.
Can you amplify on your reaction?

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]