Where Have All the Hyphens Gone?

According to a recent article on the Reuters website, the Oxford English Dictionary has eliminated hyphens from some 16,000 compound words in the English language. The hyphen holocaust took place due to the recent evolution of language. This evolution is partly due to the emergence of electronic media, such as texting and blogging, which have proven that hyphens are not only inconvenient but unnecessary as well.

Proper grammar has become an archaic art that is slowly being ebbed out in favor of emoticons and acronyms-OMG!!! did u c Meg last nite?! lmao rotfl lol! gtg tho, ttyl ;-) Hyphens are better reserved for smiley face noses now instead of...well what were they used for anyways?

The origin of hyphens is usually credited to Gutenberg and his printing press. Since his press required each line to be completely filled with movable type, the hyphen was required to fill the gaps when words didn't quite work out the way they should have. The hyphen split the word into two halves and was placed at the end of the first line to indicate to readers that the word was continued on the next line. Pick up a newspaper today and you'll still see hyphens used this way.

But hyphens also have alternate uses. For example, "The seventy two year olds had a great time playing shuffleboard after brunch." Wait a minute...what are seventy toddlers doing playing shuffleboard? Let me rephrase that sentence with the necessary hyphen: "The seventy-two year olds had a great time playing shuffleboard after brunch." Whew! That was a close call.

What if I had to re-sign a document? Would I resign it if I didn't have a hyphen? But I'm not trying to quit the document; I'm trying to sign it again. Or if I had to re-press my jeans, would I repress them without a hyphen. But I'm not a denim dictator; I'm just trying to iron my pants.

So hyphens are necessary after all. They help clear things up. They're like Stridex pads for semantic zits. Now if we could only figure out what's the point of en-dashes and em-dashes or why you can't start a sentence with a conjunction or end a sentence with a preposition or how to properly use commas with quotes or...

It's like one big Tootsie Pop of language: How many rules will it take to get to the center of grammar? The world may never know.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSHAR15384620070921