Gosh – doesn’t that title sound riveting?
Believe it or not (if you’re not a pedant, you likely won’t), people argue online about whether phrases such as “life cycle” should be written as one word, two words, or hyphenated. Normal people would just say, “Get a life!” and move on, but they don’t know what they’re missing. I’ve read several quite strong opinions on the subject, so clearly it’s a cause of confusion, irrespective of whether the opinionated are well- or ill-informed.
In fact, the topic of hyphenation in general is one massive ball of confusion, so I thought I’d help add to it.
When I started the Yonder Pedant website, my aim was to write informatively and entertainingly about the mechanics of English. However, as I conduct research for each article I discover additional layers of complexity and subtlety that I didn’t know existed. I’d suggest that it’s like peeling away at an onion, but that phrase is well past its best-before date.
On second thoughts, I will use the onion analogy, because as I peel away the layers of complexity, my eyes start streaming. Why? Because I get frustrated trying to strike a balance between providing enough information to be of value to my target audience and providing so much information that I bury them in it. Still, the job of the technical writer is to whittle the irrelevant detail away and make what remains easily understood.
I accept the challenge!
Terminology
There are rules for hyphenation—you can find them in stylebooks such as The Canadian Style, Hart’s Rules and The Chicago Manual of Style. This article discusses a few of the many examples of compounds that are (or have been) in transition from one form to another, and therefore have fallen in the gaps between those rules. Here are a few terms that I’ll need to use.
Compound: refers to multiple words used together.
Open compound: means that the words are separated by spaces.
Hyphenated compound: means that the words are joined by a hyphen.
Closed compound: means that the words are joined together. I have also seen the terms “fused’ and “solid” used.
The Life Cycle
Many of the words we use today used to be more than one word. Take “today” for example. In my 1955 dictionary, it’s shown as two words hyphenated. Today, it’s one.
That example demonstrates the second part of the life cycle. The first part of the life cycle is the transformation from an open compound to a hyphenated one. Google Books has an interesting analysis tool called “Ngram Viewer” which shows that all three forms (to day, to-day, and today) were in use from as early as the sixteenth century and that none was preferred. “To-day” seemed to take off in the 1800s, and “today” became the preferred form in 1931.
Based on Google Books’ analysis, my 1955 dictionary was behind the times. However, it does show that the various forms co-exist during their transition period, just like in real life. After all, the survivors of the Chicxulub Crater asteroid didn’t wake up one morning sixty-five million years ago and wonder where all the dinosaurs had disappeared to. And it’s that transition period that helps create confusion—nobody dictates when the open compound becomes extinct and the hyphenated version becomes the dominant species.
According to The Chicago Manual of Style, “on line” has passed through “on-line” to “online” already. I have all three forms in various of my dictionaries, and yes, in the 1980s, it was ‘on line”—by 1998 it was “on-line”, although in the US, Webster’s College Dictionary had “online” as a variant in its 1995 printing. A Google Ngram shows “on-line” overtaking “on line” in 1965 and losing to “online” by 1980.
“Email” has enjoyed an even faster evolution. My 1985 (British) English dictionary contains no reference whatsoever. My 1995 (US) dictionary lists “e-mail” but refers the reader to “electronic mail”. My 1998 (Canadian) dictionary defines “e-mail”, and the online Oxford dictionary lists “email”, with an “also e-mail” tucked in a corner.
Who knows what to-morrow’s closed compound will be? (By the way, “to-morrow” was the preferred spelling when I was born—not that it was a word I used much back then…)
If you haven’t noticed by now, dictionaries tend to lag behind the times as far as evolution is concerned. A couple of factors contribute to this lag. Firstly, they have to wait for a change to become a trend rather than a flash in the pan. Secondly, the publishers have to work within their budgets, which means that they can’t revise dictionaries every few months.
A Minefield
Determining if a compound should be open, closed or hyphenated can be very hit-and-miss—a minefield, figuratively speaking. There are no hard and fast rules. For example, it seems to me that “hard and fast” should be hyphenated—after all, the words have been used together for long enough. But no—they’re still an open compound.
Minefield is an interesting exception to the life cycle, if Google’s Ngrams are to be believed. “Minefield” seems to have been the original form, with “mine field” not putting in an appearance until 1835. The hyphenated version is the most recent addition; it shows up in 1873. By the beginning of the First World War, “mine field” is the most common form, but by the end of that war, “minefield” had just nosed ahead, and a year later was the front-runner by a long way. (Well, I found that progression and its timing interesting!)
The Long and Short
In a previous article, I quoted a former editor of the Oxford University Press Stylebook. He wrote, “If you take hyphens seriously, you will surely go mad.”
Any attempt to provide guidelines for the many exceptions to the stylebook rules will end in tears. For a while, it seemed to me that compounds that are idiomatic should be hyphenated, but “hard and fast” shot that thought down.
If you’re in any doubt about which form of a compound to use, the usual advice given is to check a dictionary for the flavour of English that your region uses. For example, Canadians should consult the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, and Americans have Webster’s as their guide.
In addition to dictionaries, professional writers have style guides to refer to, and others have the power of the wonderweb to advise them (although some of that online advice is not necessarily authoritative).
If all else fails, throw in a hyphen, but read it back to yourself. Including a hyphen could make a used-car salesman feel much less like he had been used. On the other hand, a hyphen might upset an underdog competitor.
Finally—if you need more proof that hyphenation is a cure for sanity; although “lifecycle” doesn’t show in any of my sources, Microsoft Office’s spellchecker gives it the thumbs-up (or thumbs up, depending upon which dictionary you check).
Please Help Improve Yonder Pedant’s Ramblings
- Did I miss a typo? (I’ll feel bad when you tell me, but I’d rather you did tell me!)
- Did I write something that makes you want to turn green and burst out of your shirt?
- Do you have any better examples that you would share and allow me to use?
If so, please let me know by leaving a comment.