Shifty Apostrophes and the Demise of the Hyphen

Ethan Switch - Friday, August 22, 2003 - 23:20:33 - print it raw

From the stately finger amputating printers of Oxford University Press, the new second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English has started the run and word is out that times are looking grim for the once favoured younger neighbour of the underscore. The hyphen.

As a commentator of sorts on the way English speakers use language, it's been noted that there has been a move from standard compounds into verb phrases in the overall usage. Research shows that while its use is only half of that ten years ago, it's still twice as common in language today.

Dictionaries are far from the simple snapshot of the vernacular of the times. It's a hard fought effort for a word to make it into the well regarded tome. Those that qualify have been deemed suitable and more than just a passing fad.

The new edition of the dictionary sees the addition of 3000 new words such as brazilian, foo fighters, hacktivists and terminator genes.

If they Socceroos fail to gain entry into the World Cup of 2006, thus failing the Australians that care, they can find solace in the fact that they made it into the new list of words.

On that note...

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