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I want to describe a database that is offline and turned off. I'm considering either "the shutdown database" or "the shut down database".
I'm having trouble determining which one of these sounds better. In the Microsoft style guide, they clearly state "two words as a verb, one word as a noun," but things aren't so clear cut in this case, because shutdown is used as an adjective.
"As a verb" would mean that "database" is the object of the verb.
Before modifying any tables shut down the database.
If on the other hand, you mean a database of shutdowns (perhaps list of each time a system is shut down) you can use an attributive noun.
Attributive nouns are a little like adjectives. The precede a noun to modify it. Examples might be "chicken soup" or "golf course". The nouns "chicken" and "golf" describe the type of soup or course. But "golf" isn't an adjective (you couldn't say "*this course is very golf") Clearly not every word that is used to describe a noun is an adjective.
"Shutdown" is therefore a noun in the phrase "shutdown database" and, as per the style guide, should be written as one word.
If, however you mean a database that is offline at the moment, you should say "an offline database".
For a database that's offline, it should be separate words. You can put a hyphen between them, especially for longer phrases: "The already-been-shut-down database." This is really a past participle, which is a form of a verb that acts like an adjective.
shut down as two separate words is a verb. shut is an unusual verb, in that the past participle is the same as the infinitive. So, just as a closed book is a book that is closed, a shut down database is a database that is shut down. As James says, though, it would make it completely unambiguous to describe it as an offline database.
