Hyphen
Encyclopedia
The hyphen is a punctuation
mark used to join word
s and to separate syllable
s of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dash
es ( , –, —, ― ), which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign ( − ) which is also longer. However, in environments that are restricted to ISO 646, and often in computing generally, the hyphen is represented by a hyphen-minus
( - ), which is well-known and easy to enter on keyboards.
A definitive collection of hyphenation rules does not exist; rather, different manuals of style prescribe different usage guidelines. The rules of style that apply to dashes and hyphens have evolved to support ease of reading in complex constructions; editors often accept deviations from them that will support, rather than hinder, ease of reading.
The use of the hyphen in English compound
nouns and verbs has, in general, been steadily declining. Compounds that might once have been hyphenated are increasingly left with spaces or are combined into one word. In 2007, the sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary removed the hyphens from 16,000 entries, such as fig-leaf (now fig leaf), pot-belly (now pot belly) and pigeon-hole (now pigeonhole). The advent of the Internet and the increasing prevalence of computer technology have given rise to a subset of common nouns that may in the past have been hyphenated (e.g. "toolbar
", "hyperlink
", "pastebin
").
Despite decreased use, hyphenation remains the norm in certain compound modifier constructions and, amongst some authors, with certain prefixes (see below). Hyphenation is also routinely used to avoid unsightly spacing in justified texts (for example, in newspaper columns).
s, and avoids the need to erase long words begun near the end of a line that do not fit. This kind of hyphenation is most useful when the width of the column of text is very narrow. For example:
The details of doing this properly are complex and language-dependent and can interact with other orthographic
and typesetting
practices. Hyphenation algorithm
s, when employed in concert with dictionaries, are sufficient for all but the most formal texts. See also justification
.
tends towards hyphenation () whereas American English
and Australian English
tend towards omission of the hyphen (preschool). A hyphen is mandatory when a prefix is applied to a proper (capitalized) adjective (, ).
In British English, hyphens may be employed where readers would otherwise be tempted into a mispronunciation (e.g., is so punctuated partly to prevent the reader's eye being caught automatically by the word cow). The AP Stylebook provides further information on the use of "co-" as a prefix.
Hyphens may be used, in association with prefixes, suffixes or otherwise, when repeated vowels or consonants are pronounced separately rather than being silent or merged in a diphthong
. For example: , . In the vowel-vowel case, some English authorities use a diaeresis (as in coöperation, rather than or cooperation), but this style is now rare.
Some prefixed words are hyphenated to distinguish them from other words that would otherwise be homograph
s, such as recreation
(fun or sport) and re‑creation
(the act of creating again).
, as in syl-la-bi-fi-ca-tion. Most British and North American dictionaries use an interpunct
, sometimes called a "middle dot" or "hyphenation point", for this purpose, as in syl·la·bi·fi·ca·tion. Similarly, hyphens may be used to indicate a word is being or should be spelled, such as "W-O-R-D spells word".
s are groups of two or more words that jointly modify the meaning of another word. When a compound modifier other than an adverb
-adjective
combination appears before a term, the compound modifier is often hyphenated to prevent misunderstanding, such as in player or paintings. Without the hyphen, there is potential confusion about whether the writer means a "player of American football" or an "American player of football" and whether the writer means "celebrated paintings" that are little. Compound modifiers can extend to three or more words, as in candy, and can be adverbial as well as adjectival ( frightening). However, if the compound is a familiar one, it is usually unhyphenated. For example, at least one style guide prefers the construction high school students, to students. Although the expression is technically ambiguous ("students of a high school" / "school students that are on drugs"), it would normally be formulated differently if the latter meaning were intended. Noun–noun compound modifiers are also written (according to some) without a hyphen when no confusion is likely: grade point average and department store manager.
When a compound adjective follows the term it applies to, a hyphen is typically not used. For example, "that gentleman is well respected", not "that gentleman is well-respected". Some authorities differ, and recommend the hyphen when the compound adjective follows the verb to be
or any of its inflections.
According to most style guides, hyphens should not be used in adverb-adjective modifiers when the adverb ends in -ly. For example, wholly owned subsidiary and quickly moving vehicle because the adverbs clearly modify the adjectives and "quickly" cannot modify "vehicle". However, if an adverb can also function as an adjective, then a hyphen may be or should be used for clarity, depending on the style guide. For example, the phrase reasons ("reasons that are more important") is distinguished from more important reasons ("additional important reasons"), where more is an adjective. (In contrast, the hyphen in "a reason" is not necessary to distinguish it from "a more important reason" since both mean the same thing.) A mass-noun
example is the following: scenery as distinct from more beautiful scenery. Strunk & White notably does not have a prohibition against hyphen use in compound adjectives ending in -ly. Rather, as with other hyphen usage, the key is "common sense" and writing for clarity. See id.
Hyphens are used to connect numbers and words in forming adjectival phrases (particularly with weights and measures), whether using numerals or words for the numbers, as in woman and woman or wingspan. The same usually holds for abbreviated time units. Hyphens are also used in spelled-out fraction
s as adjectives (but not as nouns), such as majority and portion. However, with symbols for SI
units—as opposed to the names of these units—both the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
recommend use without a hyphen: a 25 kg sphere. When the units are spelled out, this recommendation does not apply: a sphere, a roll of film.
In English, an en dash ( – ) sometimes replaces the hyphen in hyphenated compounds if either of its constituent parts is already hyphenated or contains a space, for example San Francisco–area residents or public-school–private-school rivalries. En dashes are more proper than hyphens in ranges (), relationships ( barrier) and to convey the sense of "to", as in race.
Some married couples compose a new surname
(sometimes referred to as a double-barrelled name
) for their new family by combining their two surnames with a hyphen. Jane Doe and John Smith might become Jane and John Smith-Doe, or Doe-Smith, for instance. In some countries, however, only the woman hyphenates her birth surname, appending her husband's surname.
The hyphen is sometimes used to hide letters in words, as in G-d, although an en-dash can be used as well for stylistic purposes (“G–d”).
. Examination of an original copy on vellum
(Hubay index #35) in the U. S. Library of Congress
shows that Gutenberg's movable type was set justified in a uniform style, 42 equal lines per page.
The Gutenberg printing press required words made up of individual letters of type to be held in place by a surrounding non-printing rigid frame. Gutenberg solved the problem of making each line the same length to fit the frame by inserting a hyphen as the last element at the right side margin. This interrupted the letters in the last word, requiring the remaining letters be carried over to the start of the line below. His hyphen appears throughout the Bible as a short, double line inclined to the right at a 60-degree angle.
In medieval times and the early days of printing, the predecessor of the comma
was a slash
. As the hyphen ought not to be confused with this, a double-slash was used, this resembling an equals sign
tilted like a slash. Writing forms changed with time, and included the full development of the comma, so the hyphen could become one horizontal stroke.
Those dictionaries based on the second edition of the Merriam-Webster
dictionary used one small, slightly tilted slash for a hyphen which they added at the end of a line where they broke the word, but used a double-slash, much like the very old symbol, to indicate a hyphen that was actually a part of the phrase but just happened to fall at the end of the line. This double-slash would be used in hyphenated phrases in the middle of the text as well, so that there would be no confusion.
character encoding
, the hyphen is encoded as character 45. This character is actually called the hyphen–minus, and it is also used as the minus sign and for dashes. In Unicode
, the hyphen–minus is encoded as ( - ) so that Unicode remains compatible with ASCII. However, Unicode also encodes the hyphen and minus separately, as U+2010 ( ‐ ) and U+2212 ( − ) respectively, along with the em dash, U+2014 ( — ), en dash U+2013 ( – ) and other related characters. The hyphen-minus is a general-purpose character which attempts to fulfill several roles, and wherever accurate typography is needed, the correct hyphen, minus, or other symbol should be used instead. For example, compare 4+3−2=5 (minus) and 4+3-2=5 (hyphen–minus); in most fonts the hyphen-minus will have neither the correct width, thickness nor vertical position.
However, the Unicode hyphen is awkward to enter on most keyboards, so the hyphen–minus character remains very common. They are often used instead of dashes or minus signs in situations where the proper characters are unavailable (such as ASCII-only text) or difficult to enter, or when the writer is unaware of the distinction. Some writers use two hyphen–minuses (--) to represent a dash in ASCII text.
Since it is difficult for a computer program to automatically make good decisions on when to hyphenate a word at a line break, the concept of a soft hyphen
was introduced to allow manual specification of a place where a hyphenated break was allowed without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text was later re-flowed. In contrast, a hyphen that is always displayed and printed is called a hard hyphen (though some use this term to refer to a non-breaking hyphen; see below). Soft hyphens are inserted into the text at the positions where hyphenation may occur. It is a tedious task to insert the soft hyphens by hand, and tools using hyphenation algorithm
s are available that do this automatically. The upcoming Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS) version 3 will provide language-specific hyphenation dictionaries.
Most text systems consider a hyphen to be a word boundary and a valid point at which to break a line when flowing text. However, this is not always desirable behavior, especially when it could lead to ambiguity (such as in the examples given before, where recreation and re‑creation would be indistinguishable), or in languages other than English (e.g. a line break at the hyphen in Irish
or Romanian
would be undesirable). For this purpose, Unicode also encodes a non-breaking hyphen as U+2011 ( ‑ , coded for by ‑). This character looks identical to the regular hyphen, but it is treated as a letter by word processors, namely that the hyphenated word will not be divided at the hyphen should this fall at what would be the end of a line of text; instead, the whole hyphenated word either will remain in full at the end of the line or will go in full to the beginning of the next line.
The ASCII hyphen–minus character is also often used when specifying command-line options. The character is usually followed by one or more letters that indicate specific actions. Typically it is called a dash or switch in this context. This is used in many different operating systems, particularly Unix-like
systems. A parameter by itself that is only a single hyphen without any letters usually means that a program is supposed to handle data coming from the standard input or send data to the standard output. Two hyphen-minus characters ( -- ) are used on some programs to specify "long options" where more descriptive option names are used. This is a common feature of GNU
software. DOS
, OS/2
and Windows
also sometimes make use of the hyphen for this purpose, although the use of a forward slash (/) is more prevalent there.
, the hyphen is used to delineate parts within a written date. Germans and Slavs also used Roman numerals
for the month; 14‑VII‑1789, for example, is one way of writing the first Bastille Day
, though this usage is rapidly falling out of favour. Plaques on the wall of the Moscow Kremlin
are written this way. Use of hyphens, as opposed to the slashes used in the English language
, is specified for international standards.
International standard
ISO 8601
, which was accepted as European Standard EN 28601 and incorporated into various typographic style guides (e.g., DIN
5008 in Germany), brought about a new standard using the hyphen. Now all official European governmental documents use this. These norms prescribe writing dates using hyphens: 1789-07-14 is the new way of writing the first Bastille Day. This is also the typical date format used in large parts of Eastern Europe and Asia, although sometimes with other separators than the hyphen.
This method has gained influence within North America, as most common computer filesystems make the use of slashes difficult or impossible. DOS, OS/2 and Windows simultaneously support both \ and / as directory separators, but / is also used to introduce and separate switches to shell commands (unless reconfigured to use the hyphen-minus in DOS). Unix-like systems use / as a directory separator and, while \ is legal in filenames, it is awkward to use as the shell uses it as an escape character. Unix also uses a space followed by a hyphen to introduce switches. Apart from the separator used the non-year form of the date format is also identical to the standard American representation.
The ISO date format sorts correctly using a default collation
, which can be useful in many computing situations including for filenames, so many computer systems and IT technicians have switched to this method. The government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
, for example, has switched to this method.
And in non-Latin scripts:
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences...
mark used to join word
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
s and to separate syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dash
Dash
A dash is one of several kinds of punctuation mark. Dashes appear similar to hyphens, but differ from them primarily in length, and serve different functions. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash and the em dash .-Common dashes:...
es ( , –, —, ― ), which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign ( − ) which is also longer. However, in environments that are restricted to ISO 646, and often in computing generally, the hyphen is represented by a hyphen-minus
Hyphen-minus
The hyphen-minus is a character used in digital documents and computing to represent a hyphen or a minus sign .It is present in Unicode as code point ; it is also in ASCII with the same value....
( - ), which is well-known and easy to enter on keyboards.
Usage in English
Hyphens are mostly used to break single words into parts, or to join ordinarily separate words into single words. Spaces should not be placed between a hyphen and either of the words it connects except when using a suspended or "hanging" hyphen (e.g. nineteenth- and twentieth‑century writers).A definitive collection of hyphenation rules does not exist; rather, different manuals of style prescribe different usage guidelines. The rules of style that apply to dashes and hyphens have evolved to support ease of reading in complex constructions; editors often accept deviations from them that will support, rather than hinder, ease of reading.
The use of the hyphen in English compound
English compound
A compound is a word composed of more than one free morpheme.English compounds may be classified in several ways, such as the word classes or the semantic relationship of their components.-Compound nouns:...
nouns and verbs has, in general, been steadily declining. Compounds that might once have been hyphenated are increasingly left with spaces or are combined into one word. In 2007, the sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary removed the hyphens from 16,000 entries, such as fig-leaf (now fig leaf), pot-belly (now pot belly) and pigeon-hole (now pigeonhole). The advent of the Internet and the increasing prevalence of computer technology have given rise to a subset of common nouns that may in the past have been hyphenated (e.g. "toolbar
Toolbar
In a graphical user interface, on a computer monitor, a toolbar is a GUI widget on which on-screen buttons, icons, menus, or other input or output elements are placed. Toolbars are seen in office suites, graphics editors, and web browsers...
", "hyperlink
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
", "pastebin
Pastebin
A pastebin is a type of web application that allows its users to upload snippets of text, usually samples of source code, for public viewing. It is very popular in IRC channels where pasting large amounts of text is considered bad etiquette. A new trend is that users use Pastebin to post Twitter...
").
Despite decreased use, hyphenation remains the norm in certain compound modifier constructions and, amongst some authors, with certain prefixes (see below). Hyphenation is also routinely used to avoid unsightly spacing in justified texts (for example, in newspaper columns).
Justification and line-wrapping
When flowing text, it is sometimes preferable to break a word in half so that it continues on another line rather than moving the entire word to the next line. The word may be divided at the nearest breakpoint between syllables, and a hyphen inserted to indicate that the letters form a word fragment, rather than a full word. This allows more efficient use of paper, allows more regular appearance of right-side margins without requiring spacing adjustments, reduces the problem of riverRiver (typography)
In typography, rivers, or rivers of white, are gaps appearing to run down a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces. They can occur regardless of the spacing settings, but are most noticeable with wide inter-word spaces caused by full text justification or monospaced...
s, and avoids the need to erase long words begun near the end of a line that do not fit. This kind of hyphenation is most useful when the width of the column of text is very narrow. For example:
| Without hyphenation | With hyphenation | |
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America... |
We, therefore, the represen- tatives of the United States of America... |
The details of doing this properly are complex and language-dependent and can interact with other orthographic
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
and typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
practices. Hyphenation algorithm
Hyphenation algorithm
A hyphenation algorithm is a set of rules that decides at which points a word can be broken over two lines with a hyphen...
s, when employed in concert with dictionaries, are sufficient for all but the most formal texts. See also justification
Justification (typesetting)
In typesetting, justification is the typographic alignment setting of text or images within a column or "measure" to align along both the left and right margin...
.
Prefixes and suffixes
Certain prefixes (co-, pre-, mid-, de-, non-, anti-, etc.) may or may not be hyphenated. Many long-established words, such as preamble and degrade, do not require a hyphen since the prefix is viewed as fully fused. In other cases, usage varies depending on individual or regional preference. British EnglishBritish English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
tends towards hyphenation () whereas American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
and Australian English
Australian English
Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....
tend towards omission of the hyphen (preschool). A hyphen is mandatory when a prefix is applied to a proper (capitalized) adjective (, ).
In British English, hyphens may be employed where readers would otherwise be tempted into a mispronunciation (e.g., is so punctuated partly to prevent the reader's eye being caught automatically by the word cow). The AP Stylebook provides further information on the use of "co-" as a prefix.
Hyphens may be used, in association with prefixes, suffixes or otherwise, when repeated vowels or consonants are pronounced separately rather than being silent or merged in a diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
. For example: , . In the vowel-vowel case, some English authorities use a diaeresis (as in coöperation, rather than or cooperation), but this style is now rare.
Some prefixed words are hyphenated to distinguish them from other words that would otherwise be homograph
Homograph
A homograph is a word or a group of words that share the same written form but have different meanings. When spoken, the meanings may be distinguished by different pronunciations, in which case the words are also heteronyms. Words with the same writing and pronunciation A homograph (from the ,...
s, such as recreation
Recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...
(fun or sport) and re‑creation
Re-creation
A re-creation is a reenactment, typically used to solve a crime or determine a mode of failure or cause of death. This may either be an actual reenactment, or a virtual reality one done on a computer...
(the act of creating again).
Syllabification and spelling
Hyphens are occasionally used to denote syllabificationSyllabification
Syllabification is the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written.It is also used to describe the process of something like a consonant turning into a syllable, but this is not discussed here...
, as in syl-la-bi-fi-ca-tion. Most British and North American dictionaries use an interpunct
Interpunct
An interpunct —also called an interpoint—is a small dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script, which also appears in some modern languages as a stand-alone sign inside a word. It is present in Unicode as code point ....
, sometimes called a "middle dot" or "hyphenation point", for this purpose, as in syl·la·bi·fi·ca·tion. Similarly, hyphens may be used to indicate a word is being or should be spelled, such as "W-O-R-D spells word".
Compound modifiers
Compound modifierCompound modifier
A compound modifier is a compound of two or more attributive words: That is, more than one word that together modify a noun...
s are groups of two or more words that jointly modify the meaning of another word. When a compound modifier other than an adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
-adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
combination appears before a term, the compound modifier is often hyphenated to prevent misunderstanding, such as in player or paintings. Without the hyphen, there is potential confusion about whether the writer means a "player of American football" or an "American player of football" and whether the writer means "celebrated paintings" that are little. Compound modifiers can extend to three or more words, as in candy, and can be adverbial as well as adjectival ( frightening). However, if the compound is a familiar one, it is usually unhyphenated. For example, at least one style guide prefers the construction high school students, to students. Although the expression is technically ambiguous ("students of a high school" / "school students that are on drugs"), it would normally be formulated differently if the latter meaning were intended. Noun–noun compound modifiers are also written (according to some) without a hyphen when no confusion is likely: grade point average and department store manager.
When a compound adjective follows the term it applies to, a hyphen is typically not used. For example, "that gentleman is well respected", not "that gentleman is well-respected". Some authorities differ, and recommend the hyphen when the compound adjective follows the verb to be
To Be
"To Be" is the eighth single by Ayumi Hamasaki, released on May 12, 1999.- Information :"To Be" was released less than a month after her first number one single, "Love ." Hamasaki's first song to be composed by Do as Infinity composer DAI, "To Be" was unable to reach the top position on the Oricon,...
or any of its inflections.
According to most style guides, hyphens should not be used in adverb-adjective modifiers when the adverb ends in -ly. For example, wholly owned subsidiary and quickly moving vehicle because the adverbs clearly modify the adjectives and "quickly" cannot modify "vehicle". However, if an adverb can also function as an adjective, then a hyphen may be or should be used for clarity, depending on the style guide. For example, the phrase reasons ("reasons that are more important") is distinguished from more important reasons ("additional important reasons"), where more is an adjective. (In contrast, the hyphen in "a reason" is not necessary to distinguish it from "a more important reason" since both mean the same thing.) A mass-noun
Mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
example is the following: scenery as distinct from more beautiful scenery. Strunk & White notably does not have a prohibition against hyphen use in compound adjectives ending in -ly. Rather, as with other hyphen usage, the key is "common sense" and writing for clarity. See id.
Hyphens are used to connect numbers and words in forming adjectival phrases (particularly with weights and measures), whether using numerals or words for the numbers, as in woman and woman or wingspan. The same usually holds for abbreviated time units. Hyphens are also used in spelled-out fraction
Fraction (mathematics)
A fraction represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, we specify how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, five-eighths and three-quarters.A common or "vulgar" fraction, such as 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, etc., consists...
s as adjectives (but not as nouns), such as majority and portion. However, with symbols for SI
Si
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
units—as opposed to the names of these units—both the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
International Bureau of Weights and Measures
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures , is an international standards organisation, one of three such organisations established to maintain the International System of Units under the terms of the Metre Convention...
and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...
recommend use without a hyphen: a 25 kg sphere. When the units are spelled out, this recommendation does not apply: a sphere, a roll of film.
In English, an en dash ( – ) sometimes replaces the hyphen in hyphenated compounds if either of its constituent parts is already hyphenated or contains a space, for example San Francisco–area residents or public-school–private-school rivalries. En dashes are more proper than hyphens in ranges (), relationships ( barrier) and to convey the sense of "to", as in race.
Other compounds
Connecting hyphens are used in a large number of miscellaneous compounds, other than modifiers, such as in lily-of-the-valley, cock-a-hoop, clever-clever, tittle-tattle and orang-utan. Usage is often dictated by convention rather than fixed rules, and hyphenation styles may vary between authors; for example, orang-utan is also written as orangutan or orang utan, and lily-of-the-valley may or may not be hyphenated.Some married couples compose a new surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
(sometimes referred to as a double-barrelled name
Double-barrelled name
In English speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen and is also known as a hyphenated name. An example of a hyphenated double-barrelled surname is Bowes-Lyon; an example of an unhyphenated...
) for their new family by combining their two surnames with a hyphen. Jane Doe and John Smith might become Jane and John Smith-Doe, or Doe-Smith, for instance. In some countries, however, only the woman hyphenates her birth surname, appending her husband's surname.
Suspended hyphens
A suspended hyphen (also referred to as a "hanging hyphen" or "dangling hyphen") may be used when a single base word is used with separate, consecutive, hyphenated words which are connected by "and", "or", or "to". For example, nineteenth-century and twentieth-century may be written as nineteenth- and twentieth-century. This usage is now common in English and specifically recommended in some style guides. Although less common, suspended hyphens are also used in English when the base word comes first, as in "investor-owned and -operated". Usages such as "applied and sociolinguistics" (instead of "applied linguistics and sociolinguistics") are frowned on in English; the Indiana University Style Guide uses this example and says "Do not 'take a shortcut' when the first expression is ordinarily open." (i.e., ordinarily two separate words).Other uses
A hyphen may be used to connect groups of numbers, such as in dates (see below), telephone numbers or sports scores, but it is more proper to use an en-dash to indicate a range of value.The hyphen is sometimes used to hide letters in words, as in G-d, although an en-dash can be used as well for stylistic purposes (“G–d”).
Varied meanings
Some strong examples of semantic changes caused by the placement of hyphens:- Disease-causing poor nutrition, meaning poor nutrition that causes disease
- Disease causing poor nutrition, meaning a disease that causes poor nutrition
- A man-eating shark is a shark that eats humans.
- A man eating shark is a man who is eating shark meat.
- A blue-green sea is a sea whose color is somewhere between blue and green.
- A blue green sea is a contradiction, unless "green" is used contextually to mean something other than a color.
- Three-hundred-year-old trees are an indeterminate number of trees that are 300 years old.
- Three hundred-year-old trees are three trees that are 100 years old.
- Three-hundred year-old trees are 300 trees that are 1 year old.
- Passenger-carrying airplanes are airplanes used to carry passengers.
- Passenger carrying airplanes is a passenger carrying airplanes.
- The fruit-eating bat is a bat that eats fruit.
- The fruit eating bat is a fruit that is eating a bat.
Origin and history
The first use of the hyphen—and its origination—is often credited to Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany circa 1455 with the publication of his 42-line BibleGutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press, and marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status...
. Examination of an original copy on vellum
Vellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
(Hubay index #35) in the U. S. Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
shows that Gutenberg's movable type was set justified in a uniform style, 42 equal lines per page.
The Gutenberg printing press required words made up of individual letters of type to be held in place by a surrounding non-printing rigid frame. Gutenberg solved the problem of making each line the same length to fit the frame by inserting a hyphen as the last element at the right side margin. This interrupted the letters in the last word, requiring the remaining letters be carried over to the start of the line below. His hyphen appears throughout the Bible as a short, double line inclined to the right at a 60-degree angle.
In medieval times and the early days of printing, the predecessor of the comma
Comma
A comma is a type of punctuation mark . The word comes from the Greek komma , which means something cut off or a short clause.Comma may also refer to:* Comma , a type of interval in music theory...
was a slash
Slash (punctuation)
The slash is a sign used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes. It is now often called a forward slash , and many other alternative names.-History:...
. As the hyphen ought not to be confused with this, a double-slash was used, this resembling an equals sign
Equals sign
The equality sign, equals sign, or "=" is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. It was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. The equals sign is placed between the things stated to have the same value, as in an equation...
tilted like a slash. Writing forms changed with time, and included the full development of the comma, so the hyphen could become one horizontal stroke.
Those dictionaries based on the second edition of the Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster
Merriam–Webster, which was originally the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language .Merriam-Webster Inc. has been a...
dictionary used one small, slightly tilted slash for a hyphen which they added at the end of a line where they broke the word, but used a double-slash, much like the very old symbol, to indicate a hyphen that was actually a part of the phrase but just happened to fall at the end of the line. This double-slash would be used in hyphenated phrases in the middle of the text as well, so that there would be no confusion.
In computing
In the ASCIIASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
character encoding
Character encoding
A character encoding system consists of a code that pairs each character from a given repertoire with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octets or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks or storage of text in...
, the hyphen is encoded as character 45. This character is actually called the hyphen–minus, and it is also used as the minus sign and for dashes. In Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
, the hyphen–minus is encoded as ( - ) so that Unicode remains compatible with ASCII. However, Unicode also encodes the hyphen and minus separately, as U+2010 ( ‐ ) and U+2212 ( − ) respectively, along with the em dash, U+2014 ( — ), en dash U+2013 ( – ) and other related characters. The hyphen-minus is a general-purpose character which attempts to fulfill several roles, and wherever accurate typography is needed, the correct hyphen, minus, or other symbol should be used instead. For example, compare 4+3−2=5 (minus) and 4+3-2=5 (hyphen–minus); in most fonts the hyphen-minus will have neither the correct width, thickness nor vertical position.
However, the Unicode hyphen is awkward to enter on most keyboards, so the hyphen–minus character remains very common. They are often used instead of dashes or minus signs in situations where the proper characters are unavailable (such as ASCII-only text) or difficult to enter, or when the writer is unaware of the distinction. Some writers use two hyphen–minuses (--) to represent a dash in ASCII text.
Since it is difficult for a computer program to automatically make good decisions on when to hyphenate a word at a line break, the concept of a soft hyphen
Soft hyphen
In computing and typesetting, a soft hyphen is a type of hyphen used to specify a place in text where a hyphenated break is allowed without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is re-flowed....
was introduced to allow manual specification of a place where a hyphenated break was allowed without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text was later re-flowed. In contrast, a hyphen that is always displayed and printed is called a hard hyphen (though some use this term to refer to a non-breaking hyphen; see below). Soft hyphens are inserted into the text at the positions where hyphenation may occur. It is a tedious task to insert the soft hyphens by hand, and tools using hyphenation algorithm
Hyphenation algorithm
A hyphenation algorithm is a set of rules that decides at which points a word can be broken over two lines with a hyphen...
s are available that do this automatically. The upcoming Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
(CSS) version 3 will provide language-specific hyphenation dictionaries.
Most text systems consider a hyphen to be a word boundary and a valid point at which to break a line when flowing text. However, this is not always desirable behavior, especially when it could lead to ambiguity (such as in the examples given before, where recreation and re‑creation would be indistinguishable), or in languages other than English (e.g. a line break at the hyphen in Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
or Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
would be undesirable). For this purpose, Unicode also encodes a non-breaking hyphen as U+2011 ( ‑ , coded for by ‑). This character looks identical to the regular hyphen, but it is treated as a letter by word processors, namely that the hyphenated word will not be divided at the hyphen should this fall at what would be the end of a line of text; instead, the whole hyphenated word either will remain in full at the end of the line or will go in full to the beginning of the next line.
The ASCII hyphen–minus character is also often used when specifying command-line options. The character is usually followed by one or more letters that indicate specific actions. Typically it is called a dash or switch in this context. This is used in many different operating systems, particularly Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
systems. A parameter by itself that is only a single hyphen without any letters usually means that a program is supposed to handle data coming from the standard input or send data to the standard output. Two hyphen-minus characters ( -- ) are used on some programs to specify "long options" where more descriptive option names are used. This is a common feature of GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
software. DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
also sometimes make use of the hyphen for this purpose, although the use of a forward slash (/) is more prevalent there.
Usage in date notation
In parts of EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the hyphen is used to delineate parts within a written date. Germans and Slavs also used Roman numerals
Roman numerals
The numeral system of ancient Rome, or Roman numerals, uses combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as:...
for the month; 14‑VII‑1789, for example, is one way of writing the first Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...
, though this usage is rapidly falling out of favour. Plaques on the wall of the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
are written this way. Use of hyphens, as opposed to the slashes used in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, is specified for international standards.
International standard
International standard
International standards are standards developed by international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use, worldwide...
ISO 8601
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization and was first published in 1988...
, which was accepted as European Standard EN 28601 and incorporated into various typographic style guides (e.g., DIN
Din
DIN or Din or din can have several meanings:* A din is a loud noise.* Dīn, an Arabic term meaning "religion" or "way of life".* Din is one of the ten aspects of the Ein Sof in Kabbalah ....
5008 in Germany), brought about a new standard using the hyphen. Now all official European governmental documents use this. These norms prescribe writing dates using hyphens: 1789-07-14 is the new way of writing the first Bastille Day. This is also the typical date format used in large parts of Eastern Europe and Asia, although sometimes with other separators than the hyphen.
This method has gained influence within North America, as most common computer filesystems make the use of slashes difficult or impossible. DOS, OS/2 and Windows simultaneously support both \ and / as directory separators, but / is also used to introduce and separate switches to shell commands (unless reconfigured to use the hyphen-minus in DOS). Unix-like systems use / as a directory separator and, while \ is legal in filenames, it is awkward to use as the shell uses it as an escape character. Unix also uses a space followed by a hyphen to introduce switches. Apart from the separator used the non-year form of the date format is also identical to the standard American representation.
The ISO date format sorts correctly using a default collation
Collation
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...
, which can be useful in many computing situations including for filenames, so many computer systems and IT technicians have switched to this method. The government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, for example, has switched to this method.
Unicode
Apart from dash and minus sign, Unicode has multiple hyphen characters: (still not to be confused with )And in non-Latin scripts:
See also
- DashDashA dash is one of several kinds of punctuation mark. Dashes appear similar to hyphens, but differ from them primarily in length, and serve different functions. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash and the em dash .-Common dashes:...
- Double hyphenDouble hyphenThe double hyphen is a punctuation mark that consists of two parallel hyphens. It is not to be confused with two consecutive hyphens , which usually represents an em dash or en dash...
- Hyphen WarHyphen WarThe Hyphen War was the tongue-in-cheek name given to the conflict over what to call Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist government.-Background:...
- Papyrological hyphen
External links
- A Grammar Book help for hyphen rules
- Economist Style Guide — Hyphens
- Compound Words: When to Hyphenate
- Jukka Korpela, Soft hyphen (SHY) - a hard problem? (see also his article on word breaking, line breaks, and special characters (including hyphens) in HTML)
- Markus Kuhn, Unicode interpretation of SOFT HYPHEN breaks ISO 8859-1 compatibility. Unicode Technical Committee document L2/03-155R, June 2003.
- Hyphenator.js, Hyphenator.js source code
- hypho-o, hypho-o online soft hyphen insertion tool
- Lyric Hyphenator, Online Hyphenation Tool
- United States Government Printing Office Style Manual 2000 6. COMPOUNDING RULES
- ushuaia.pl, online hyphenator (multilanguage)