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Check this page. I refer particularly to this sentence:

Quote:

Worse yet, the thirty-second nature of a small fish's memory guarantees that they can never, ever get used to it.



I submit that the use of the hyphen increases ambiguity rather than decreasing it. A hyphen would normally be used to indicate that this was an ordinal number rather than a measure of time, but the context seems to suggest that it is the measure of time that is meant.



Dear Mister Faldage,

We all know the nature of a sixty-minute-man but will you please explain the meaning of "thirty second lover" as used in this song. Would hyphenating help?

THIRTY SECOND LOVER

Well I'm a thirty second lover
umm pop pa pi
Love has made me cry
umm pop pa pi
I'm a thirty second lover
Love has made me cry, yeah

I'm a thirty second love has made me cry
Can't get you out of my mind.

Yeah!
I gonna tell everybody
umm pop pa pi
What you been doin' to me
I going to tell everybody
Umm pop pa pi
What you've been doin' to me, yeah!

I'm gonna tell everybody what you've been doin' to me
Can't get you outta my mind.
____________________________________ 5 Royales 1956


John Dos Passos [my hero] believed that hyphenated words were ugly and superfluous and so instead he would simply create compound words for the nonce.

Goodgodyall, that man could write.