To search for authority, then, in the matter of compounding words, will avail next to nothing. In a volume containing “School Committees’ Reports,”—and certainly school committees ought to know many things,—we find “blackboard” and “black-board”; and, on one page, “schoolbooks,” “schoolkeeping,” “schoolmaster,” “school-houses,” “school-checks.” “Semi-annual” is frequently printed with the hyphen, according to Webster; but Worcester, omitting the hyphen, has “semiannual.”
Thus it appears, that, in regard to compounding (by which we mean inserting the hyphen between the parts of a compound word), the proof-reader is left to his own discretion, and can do very much as he pleases. He should, however, adopt some method by which he can approximate to uniformity in his own work; for as to agreeing with anybody else, that is out of the question.
Perhaps as good a rule as can be laid down on this subject is to close up the word when {p86} compounding changes the accentuation; otherwise, insert the hyphen. Thus, “Quartermaster” has a different accentuation from the two words “quarter master”; therefore make one word of it, without the hyphen. “Head-assistant” is accented like the two words “head assistant,”—therefore insert the hyphen. By this rule “schoolhouse” and “blackboard” should be severally closed up; “salt-mine” takes the hyphen,—“saltsea” (adjective) does not.
The word “tree,” with a prefix indicating the kind, should be compounded; as “oak-tree,” “forest-tree,” “pine-tree,” etc. (Webster has a hyphen in “whiffle-tree,” Worcester prints “whiffletree.”)
“Cast-iron” and “wrought-iron” are usually compounded, and should always be so when used as adjectives; as “cast-iron pillars,” “wrought-iron boilers.”
“Temple-street place” (or “Place,” according to style), “Suffolk-street District,” “Pemberton-square School,” are quite correct; the hyphen is too frequently omitted in such cases.
The words ex officio do not require a hyphen, but some very reputable offices insert it.
Hyphens are sometimes used to indicate grotesque pronunciation, as in the following couplet from “Rejected Addresses”:
“In borrowed luster seemed to sham
The rose and red sweet Will-i-am.”