Quelle shock! I read in the BBC news this morning that hyphens are gradually being lost from the English language. The new OED has just eliminated 16,000 of them. Some hyphenated words became single words (chickpea, leapfrog, bumblebee, logjam, and crybaby), and some became two words (fig leaf, hobby horse, ice cream, pot belly, test tube, pin money).
What is this world coming to? When I was a girl, we valued our hyphens.
If you want to know more about this tragic loss:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7004661.stm
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