September 25, 2007

Apparently, the OED is decimating my beloved hyphens. 

O, woe is me! I love using hyphens in compound-word adjectives (even if my copyeditors don't). After all, I was raised on Strunk & White, which I still use as my grammar bible, even though it seems to be losing favor. (*sob*)

S&W says, in regards to hyphens:

"When two or more words are combined to form a compound adjective, a hyphen is usually required…Do not use a hyphen between words that can better be written as one word, 'water-fowl,' 'waterfowl.' Your common sense will aid you in the decision, but a dictionary is more reliable. The steady evolution of the language seems to favor union: two words eventually become one, usually after a period of hyphenation."

Hey! Strunk & White aren't wrong! Yay! My faith is restored. (In the OED, not S&W. My faith in them has never waivered. They were the ones who finally helped me nail who v. whom.)

Do you have a Strunk & White? Is it as dog-eared as mine (which dates from my undergrad years, which were much longer ago than I care to admit)?

What's your grammar hangup? Your favorite punctuation mark? (My editor would probably claim mine is the semi-colon, although I'm getting better at restraining myself from abusing the poor little thing.)

Tomorrow, I will write about synchronicity (and therein will be a leetle tiny tease about Gardella 4).

(No, not that Synchonicity. That was just an excuse to post a pic of Sting.)