Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

October 10, 2008 7:12:08 PM CDT

Learn about Newser Points »

« Back to the grid | Next story »

Hyphen Takes a Knockout Blow

Posted Sep 21, 07 9:17 AM CDT in Arts & Living 

(Newser) – The new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has far fewer of everyone's favorite little connector. Editors have dropped 16,000 hyphens from all sorts of compound words: "Fig-leaf" is now "fig leaf," "chick-pea" has become "chickpea."  Email is the culprit, reports the BBC: writers no longer have time or patience to reach for the hypyen key. Says the Shorter's editor, "It's starting to look a lot like something your grandmother might write."

Speakers of French or Japanese can turn to governing bodies for official language decrees, but lexicographers have to struggle to keep up with the unregulated nature of English. The OED and its shorter edition derive their entries from a corpus of texts, and, said editor Angus Stevenson, "We are only reflecting widespread everyday use."

Source BBC

0 comments | Print E-mail | Digg Seed this on Newsvine Add this link to Del.icio.us StumbleUpon

Related Newser Stories

  • Has It Gone, Or Just Gone Online?

    May 11, 08 5:06 PM CDT
    Has It Gone, Or Just Gone Online? The Oxford English Dictionary—the 3-volume one with the magnifying glass—has ditched its hard copy and gone digital for good, which makes one "bookish middle-class" writer nervous. "Other totemic college books could go out of style, maybe," Virginia Heffernan writes in the New York Times. But "the OED was forever. Wasn’t it?" More »

new_english_dictionary   ((c) Brian Sawyer)
The Shorter OED.   (Powells)
Oxford dictionaries.
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
Our editors also recommend:

Tags

oxford english dictionary


Loading...

Premium Articles from HighBeam

Find more articles like this

Today's Most Popular

Loading...

Other Arts & Living Stories

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Newser gives you more news in less time. We search for the best and most important stories all over the web, read them for you, and deliver concise and sharp summaries—along with links to the full text. Newser provides a way to stay on top of an ever-expanding horizon of news and opinion—politics, sports, business, trends, technology, personalities, crimes, and controversies. Newser keeps you not just better informed, but, with our signature graphic interface and smart condensed format, more enjoyably informed.

Learn more »