hyphen

Pluralhyphens

Formshyphens, hyphening, hyphened

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A short punctuation mark (‐) used to join two or more words into a compound, or to show that a word has been split across a line break.

   The style guide says to place a hyphen in 'well-known' when it comes before a noun.

   When the word would not fit, the typesetter added a hyphen and continued it on the line below.

   Note

   A Greek phrase sits inside the mark. Late Latin took it from huph' hén, "under one," contracted to huphén, "together." That is still its job: it gathers two words under one, as in well-known before a noun, or holds a single word together across a line break. It also lives in double-barreled surnames. Claire Cock-Starkey, in Hyphens & Hashtags (2021), calls hers part of "a lovingly crafted surname."

2. 2
   verbdatedtransitive

   To mark a word or phrase with a hyphen; to hyphenate.

   Older style guides advised writers to hyphen compound adjectives before a noun.

   The clerk hyphened the long surname on each official record.

   Similarhyphenate

   Note

   An older, shorter verb that hyphenate has largely displaced. It survives mostly in earlier prose and sounds old-fashioned today. It is regular, so its forms are hyphens, hyphening and hyphened, and a hyphened name is simply a hyphenated one. In current writing, hyphenate is the safe choice. Use hyphen as a verb only when you want a period flavor.

3. 3
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A minor thing that serves as a link between two things of greater importance than itself.

   The narrow isthmus is a hyphen joining two great landmasses.

   In the family business, the youngest partner was a mere hyphen between the two dominant founders.

   Similarlink, bridge, connector

   Note

   The metaphor keeps the mark's modesty. A hyphen matters only for what it joins, so calling something a hyphen ranks it below both of its ends. Social scientists have made it a working term. Cunliffe and Karunanayake (2013), building on Fine, write of "hyphen spaces" between researchers and the researched, an in-between zone where each side shapes the other. Said of a person, it can sound quietly belittling: a mere hyphen.

4. 4
   nounfigurativelycountable

   An enclosed passage built to link one building with another.

   The hospital wings are joined by a heated hyphen above the courtyard.

   Visitors cross from the gallery to the library through a glazed hyphen.

   Similarwalkway, passage, corridor, link, skywalk

   Note

   An architect's word borrowed from punctuation: like the printed mark, the passage is short and modest, and its job is to tie two larger parts into one building. It belongs to historic houses and public buildings, where hyphens run from a central block out to the wings, as in James M. Cain's The Cocktail Waitress (2012). Because many readers know only the mark, writers often flag the term or gloss it as a "connecting wing."

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A person belonging to a marginalized subgroup, identifiable by a hyphenated label such as 'German-American' or 'Mexican-American'.

   The memoir gives voice to the hyphen who never fully belongs to either nation.

   Many hyphens describe living between two languages and two sets of expectations.

   Note

   The word began as a political insult before it became a label of identity. In 1916 the "hyphens" were immigrant Americans whose loyalty was questioned. A Republican paper claimed Hughes had been "designated by the Hyphens" to punish Wilson, and a President's attack on them drew applause. Later scholars reclaimed it. Michelle Fine's "working the hyphens" names the hybrid space between two belongings. Use it with care, since its early tone was hostile.

6. 6
   conjunction

   Written or spoken as a word between two terms to emphasize the joining that the punctuation mark '-' usually indicates.

   Aloud she introduced him as her partner hyphen co-author.

   The brochure promised a relaxing spa hyphen boot camp hyphen detox retreat, which sounded exhausting.

   Similarslash

   Note

   The punctuation mark spoken aloud, usually to stack job titles with a touch of irony. Cleveland Amory's Home Town (1950) describes "a Hollywood hyphenated man. An actor hyphen director hyphen writer." The word turns a compound such as poet-composer into an announcement of how many roles someone claims. In print it is sometimes set in parentheses, as in actor (hyphen) writer, to show it is meant to be heard.

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