The Writer's Desk Book / Being a Reference Volume upon Questions of Punctuation, Capitalization, Spelling, Division of Words, Indention, Spacing, Italics, Abbreviations, Accents, Numerals, Faulty Diction, Letter Writing, Postal Regulations, Etc.

by William Dana Orcutt

COMPOUND WORDS

THE general theory of compounding is that when two words are used together with but a single meaning, the hyphen is employed if the emphasis of pronunciation falls upon the first word, but omitted if it is the second word which requires the emphasis. Practice, however, has shown that this theory is not sufficiently specific in its expression to guide the student who is desirous of making consistent use of the hyphen, and recourse to the various dictionaries adds to his confusion because of the many variations. Good usage, therefore, becomes his only refuge, and the rules which are formulated and collated here are based wholly upon what appears to the present writer to come within this definition. Many words originally compounded or written as two words are now written as one; on the other hand, modern usage now compounds or breaks into two words many words which were originally written as one.

¶ In general, hyphens should always be omitted when the meaning can be equally well expressed by using the same words separately. {46}