Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Hyphen-phobes beware!


Hyphens (from a letter to the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, December 15, 2017, p. 6)

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Sir - Gerald Mangan [Freelance, December 1] is right to feel disgruntled about the removal of hyphens by disapproving US copy-editors. I blame Woodrow Wilson, who is on record as stating that "the hyphen is the most un-American thing in the world" (note the un-). ... Hyphen-phobes need to be reminded that there is world of difference between extra marital sex and extra-marital sex. A one night stand is not the same as a one-night stand ...

JOHN O'BYRNE

Harold's Cross, Dublin

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