We can apparently blame the Interwebs for the OED's mass killing. "People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they're not really sure what they are for." And: "The hyphen is seen as messy looking and old-fashioned." There's always been a tendency for two words to "date" -- the hyphen as chaperone -- and then marry, becoming one word. But interesting to me are the words that have "broken up": water-bed is now water bed, and ice-cream is now ice cream.
And it's true, they do seem old-fashioned (oldfashioned? old fashioned?). Consider the Onion headline from 100 years ago: Will the Steam Engine Replace the China-Man?
Let me be the first to say: I for one welcome our new antihyphen overlords.
2 comments:
Take that, Emily Dickinson!
As someone who has spent far too much of his life banging his forehead against sections 7.82-7.90 of the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition)--I welcome the eradication of those little match-making bastards!
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