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Joined: Jun 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
As part of a program to beautify our highways, a sign on US131 N as you enter the southeast corner of Grand Traverse County has been replaced with a brand-spanking new one that reads:
Prison Area
Do not pickup
hitchhikers
Is it just me, or is this sign missing a space?
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I've seen this in other phrasal verbs, specifically back up conflated to backup. I've even seen the past tense form backupped.
Also backuped, but that's a little too much, even for this staunch descriptivist.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I spose it equates to "pickup truck" :-(
If 'twere me writing the notice, I'd stick in not only one space but one hyphen as well.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
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TEd
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
it equates to "pickup truck"
Well, yeah. Connie's lovely pun depends on that*. But the sign should just use pick up.
*I just know I'm going to hate myself for pointing it out.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
How long did/will it take for hitch-hikers and pick-up to gain/lose a hyphen? Does the 'space' evolve first or does the hyphen? How long will it take for both to disappear, leaving us with *a word? ...and will Batman escape from what is sure to be a gruesome death?
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
With baseball it started as two words, pickupped the hyphen, and then became one word. There was a period in there when all three variants were seen.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Funny, I just went through this same discussion about the word make-up (v. makeup) today with one of my U.S. suppliers and a client. Our assorted dictionaries spelled it in different ways depending upon its age and country of origin.
We decided to go with make-up since two out of three Canadian dictionaries spelled it that way and the product is for the Canadian market. My supplier's U.S. Webster's spelled it makeup.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
I'd actually never thought about it, and I would have spelled it without the hyphen, as in H2G2. I googled and found about a 3-2 preference for the word without the hyphen, but many of the citations were the same.
And I remember this word from many years ago when a bunch of us were searching for words that had double letters in them. Double-aitch ain't that common. And thank God Exxon proved that a big oil company didn't have to be Humble.
TEd
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
OED2 hyphenates; W3 does not -- this suggests a bank-bias.
(or OED hasn't updated the aitches yet)
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