the word 'whodunit' is a quintessential example of a playful, modern english coinage. it emerged in american english around 1930 as a piece of slang within the publishing and literary world, directly representing the colloquial pronunciation of the question "who done it?" this phrase was a common, if grammatically informal, query regarding the central mystery of a crime story. the term successfully lexicalized, solidifying into a single noun that names the entire genre it questions. its formation bypasses traditional latin or greek roots, instead showcasing english's capacity to create durable technical terms from its own vernacular and syntactic patterns.

this is a humorous, informal coinage from the early 20th century, created from a colloquial pronunciation of the phrase "who done it?" it is not formed from classical morphemes but is a lexicalized phrase.