Adjectives hyphenated to nouns – grammatically incorrect?

J. V. Remsen, Jr. (Acting Chair, South American Classification Committee, American Ornithologists’ Union)

[It is hard to reconcile spending time on such a tedious, pedantic topic, but given that the IOC proclaims so confidently that adjectives hyphenated to nouns are a “trespass on grammar”, ….]

1. Strunk, W., Jr. and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 3^rd Edition. MacMillan Publishing Co., NY.

Strunk & White’s classic “Elements of Style” states specifically that “the steady evolution of the language seems to favor union: two words eventually become one, usually after a period of hyphenation.” Their examples include “wild life” becoming “wild-life” and then “wildlife.” Note that “wild” is an adjective that was for a time hyphenated to a noun to form a new compound noun, which Gill declares is a grammatical mistake.

Bird names such as “hummingbird” and “laughingthrush” have undergone a similar evolution, starting in early literature as two words, followed by a period of hyphenation, and finally combined into a single noun.

2. Shertzer, M. 1986. The Elements of Grammar. MacMillan Publishing Co., NY.

“Since usage varies, it is impossible to make inflexible rules for hyphenating phrases. Two or more words which represent a single idea may stand as separate words or become hyphenated or be written as one word. The usual sequence is for words to be written separate at first, then to become hyphenated, and finally to be written as solid. The overall rule is to avoid ambiguity.”

Among the examples listed in the examples of proper hyphen use are the following adjective-to-noun constructions:

“first-class bond” and “long-distance telephone”

Shertzer does, however, state that hyphens are not used in proper names such as “New England,” and this is as close as I can come to finding something to support the “IOC” position. Even here, unless “Whistling Duck” is added to English dictionaries as a proper name, the situation is not the same. Because whistling-ducks are phylogenetically distant from other birds called ducks, an evolution from Whistling Duck to Whistling-Duck to Whistlingduck (analogous to Hummingbird) seems likely.

3. Leggett, G, C. D. Mead, and W. Charvat. 1978. Prentice-Hall Handbook for Writers, 7^th Ed. Prentice-Hall, NJ.

“30a. Use a hyphen to form compound words that are not yet accepted as single words. The spelling of a compound word that express a single idea passes through successive stages. Originally spelled as two separate words, then as a hyphenated word, a compound word emerges as a single word.”

4. Hodges, J. C., and M. E. Whitten. 1977. Harbrace College Handbook, 8^th ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, NY.

“Words forming a compound may be written separately, written as one word, or connected by hyphens. … Writers may coin their own compounds, using hyphenated structures to express ides. Use the hyphen to avoid ambiguity … “ The specific example used to illustrate the latter involves hyphenation of an adjective to a noun to avoid ambiguity: “Her father owns a small animal-hospital” vs. “Her father owns a small-animal hospital.”

5. Reader’s Digest Success with Words. A Guide to the American Language” (1983, Reader’s Digest Association, 692 pp)

With respect to compound nouns (p. 160): “The words that make up a compound noun do not have to be nouns themselves. All that matters is that the words make up a unit that functions as a noun. Some compound nouns are written as separate words, some are hyphenated, and some are written as one word.”

6. Warriner, J. E. 1951. Handbook of English. Book Two. Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 592 pp.

“32i. Hyphenate a compound adjective.

EXAMPLES

A second-story room”

In summary, the first six sources on grammar that I consulted, all venerable and respected references, do not mention specifically that it is incorrect to hyphenate an adjective to a noun to form a compound word, and most give specific examples of such usage to remove ambiguity.