This Slate article should be updated to tell us which is the best online dictionary. I think it would help to settle some journal debates on authoritative hyphenation. Yes, you thought the Bluebook was exhaustive, but actually blueblooking is just exhausting.
UPDATE: This, too, is cool.
According to the CMS, the trend has been away from the use of hyphens, and I am glad.
In my opinion, hyphens should only be used if necessary to avoid confusion or difficult reading. So, in general, if there is debate about whether to use a hyphen or not, I would not use the hyphen.
Amen to the Bluebook comment. It is far from exhaustive, merely unnatural and complicated. And those attributes make it that much harder to fill in the blanks it leaves.
Posted by: Andy at May 15, 2006 01:26 AM