26. Meet Mr. Hyphen

 

assiduous | and quite critical

shall we write | anklebone

breastbone | funnybone

hipjoint | kneejoint?

language | must make

decisions quite | arbitrarily

indicate the nature | of the problem:

bread winner | breadpudding

corn cob | cornfritter

snowcrystals | snow storm

sweetcorn | sweet heart

the niceties of our usage:

“the endless | chain principle”

two words that | are to be

one-worded | any combination

or collocation | of words:

high strung | high-strung

highstrung | two words

together | wide-eyed

overrun | thumbtacked

effort to reduce | visible

compounding | to the minimum

that excludes | ambiguity

twords | aftwords

fisherboatrace | flatironside

handwriting | hardwrithing

safeguard | agst | misreading

increases | the wealth

of a language | enhances

the power | of expression

“a fine | tooth-comb”

strengthens | any text

hyphens weary | a reader’s mind

downfunnelled | curbchannelled

scribblescrawling | coinfumbling

polopony | polopony | polopony

cultivate | his acquaintance

in his proper place | to be watched

camelswallower | restlessrolling

there is no humor | in this

 

the recording | lexicographers

are doing | something

nobody knows | all about

compounding | wanting in sympathy

the person who | sticks a hyphen in

here and omits | it otherwhere

every hyphen | should do something

definitely and | distinctively

grope and fumble | faultfind and argue

a falling apple falls | and a burning

house burns | does not fall functionally

moved on from | verb adjectives

to verb-nouns | ently regulated

these -ing words | whether a room

was really living | reading | or waiting

laughing stock | stalking horse

(as in reinter | < re-in-terra)

anti- | pseudo- | quasi- | semi-

at least for | present purposes

they are provided | such as to justify