Word Changes, Word-Changes, Wordchanges
Words are sometimes fun, but always necessary. In the English language the definitive authority of what’s going on with words is the Oxford English Dictionary, usually referred to as the OED. Here in America we rely on 2 or 3 home-grown dictionaries such as Webster’s to help us with definitions and proper usage. But the OED keeps close watch of every word and documents its usage all the way back to whenever it was first spoken. That’s why it fills more than 30 small-print volumes in your local library.
Contrary to what some people think, dictionaries do not make the rules of usage, nor do they decide what words shall be used. They merely document what is going on with written and spoken communications and report back to us. That’s why they wait for several years between editions, letting usage sort itself out.
Well, these OED people made some headlines the other day when they announced that the sixth edition of the Shorter English Dictionary (only 2 volumes, usually read with a magnifying glass.) that has just been released has dropped the hyphen from approx. 16,000 words.
In these cases people have been writing the words in question either as two stand alone (stand-alone?) words or combining them into one compound word. Ice-cream is now ice cream, and water-borne is now waterborne. Researchers examined a corpus of more than 2 billion words, consisting of full sentences that appeared in newspapers, books, Web sites and blogs from 2000 onwards. Data drawn from a wide range of publications taken in 1961 and 1991 suggested a 5% decline in hyphen usage over the three decades.
Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, tells us why he thinks this is happening: “People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they’re not really sure what they are for. Printed writing is very much design-led these days in adverts and Web sites, and people feel that hyphens mess up the look of a nice bit of typography,” he said. “The hyphen is seen as messy looking and old-fashioned.”
“We only reflect what people in general are reading. We have been tracking this for some time and we’ve been finding the hyphen is used less and less,” he says. “It will probably upset a few people but the point I would make is that we are only reflecting widespread everyday use. We are not saying it should be dropped completely.”
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The hyphen will always be with us.
Some of the words that were formerly hyphenated that are now split into two: ice cream, hobby horse, fig leaf, pin money, test tube, water bed, pot belly (Hmmm).
Some words that dropped the hyphen and combined into one: bumblebee, crybaby, chickpea, leapfrog, logjam, lowlife, pidgeonhole.
So keep whappin’ out your e-mails emails and don’t look back.
All right, let’s get to work.
While you’re going through the equipment-check-list, I’ll go start the coffee-machine.
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