New, Lighter, De-hyphenated Dictionary

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has announced that it will slash hyphens from about 16,000 previously hyphenated words in its newest (sixth) edition, published last month. Sixteen thousand? Seriously? I cannot think of 16,000 hyphenated words. I tried and topped out at about 10,000. Previously hyphenated words have either become one word (bumblebee, chickpea, pigeonhole, crybaby, leapfrog) or two words (ice cream, water bed, test tube, fig leaf, pot belly).

This is all part of the evolutionary process of word formation. New compound phrases are always being created, first as separate words joined by hyphens, which help clarify that the words are linked in some way. The hyphens are dropped when the new word becomes common-place. Currently, the New York Times and the BBC are fighting the transition of "e-mail" to "email," but it's a losing battle.

Changing ice-cream to ice cream and bumble-bee to bumblebee is fine (and was anyone really writing chick-pea?), but I'm going to make a fuss if they start messing with my em dash.