A new (to me, IAC) spelling rule

[Eric Nielsen]

I know dendrologists have some similar rules:


"The western redcedar is actually an arborvitae - a "false" cedar. The
spelling of the name "redcedar" as one word indicates that this is not a
true cedar."


http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/URBAN_FORESTS/docs/FeaturedTreeWesternRedcedar.pdf?ga=t

Eric


On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 7:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A new (to me, IAC) spelling rule
>
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>
> Incredibly, I've never heard of this rule either.
> OED shows "bed-bug" hyphenated since 1861. MW enters it as solid.
>
> I didn't bother to check on "dragonfly" or "damselfly."
>
> Conceivably it's a rule insisted on by a few anal-retentive entomologists.
>
> Just as conceivably, the letter writer has a bee in his bonnet and a wild
> hair elsewhere.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>

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