documentate!!

[Jonathan Lighter]

Me too. Or "me three" as the case may be.  (Not in OED but undoubtedly ancient.)

Especially pernicious are hyphens within multipart verbs, e.g. "I thought I'd freak-out" or "Time to hit-the-sack."

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: documentate!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mar 28, 2005, at 2:03 PM, Barbara Need wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Barbara Need
> Subject: Re: documentate!!
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> I just got back the copy edited version of a book I'm writing in
>> which the
>> copyeditor decided that my use of "in a solicitation to murder case"
>> should
>> be changed into a verbal expression, "to solicitate a murder."
>> Obviously I'm
>> objecitating to this monstrous change. But maybe that's they way the
>> -ate
>> movement is going these days.
>>
>> Roger Shuy
>
> Would like it better with hyphens: "in a solicitation-to-murder case"?
>
> Barbara
>

I agree with you, Barb. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the hyphen is
going the way of the dinosaur. Except, of-course, in those environments
in which we would-never-use one.

-Wilson


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!