Hyphens

June 30, 2009 8:16 AM

What are great, memorable examples of where a hyphen can completely change the meaning of a phrase or sentence?

"I'm looking for a little used car" has a different meaning to "I'm looking for a little-used car".

Can anyone supply more memorable or hard-hitting phrases to demonstrate the importance of using hyphens correctly?

Funny and or rude examples are positively encouraged, and I'd particularly appreciate examples where a misplaced or omitted hyphen might land you with a defamation suit!

Thanks a lot.

posted by Blackwatch to writing & language (30 comments total)

http://www.xkcd.com/37/
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 8:18 AM on June 30 [2 favorites has favorites]

I re-sent that e-mail.
posted by rokusan at 8:30 AM on June 30 [5 favorites has favorites]

I don't know if it's hard hitting or not (yes no hyphen for hard hitting because it comes after the verb), but something that comes up a lot in my editing work is the hyphenation of "small business," as in a small business tax credit as opposed to a small-business tax credit.
posted by ekroh at 8:31 AM on June 30

Extra-marital sex.
posted by rokusan at 8:31 AM on June 30 [5 favorites has favorites]

Man-eating dog.
posted by grumblebee at 8:32 AM on June 30

(And other variations on that, like "extra solar planets" vs "extra-solar planets.")
posted by rokusan at 8:33 AM on June 30

Five-hundred-year old statues. (Or "five hundred-year old statues.")
posted by rokusan at 8:36 AM on June 30

I dealt with a young lady last week who had a name tag reading "Model Store Manager".

That one could have used a hyphen. Or an explanation.
posted by rokusan at 8:38 AM on June 30

What's the best part about sleeping with twenty[-]three year olds?
posted by Perplexity at 8:39 AM on June 30 [3 favorites has favorites]

anarchist-free space vs. anarchist free-space
posted by molecicco at 8:40 AM on June 30

We un-ionized the office.

(I could do this all day. I'd better stop.)
posted by rokusan at 8:41 AM on June 30

Okay, okay, ONE more...

There are no-smoking restrictions at any of our restaurants.
posted by rokusan at 8:44 AM on June 30

Example from Strunk and White's The Elements Of Style:

"The hyphen can play tricks on the unwary, as it did in Chattanooga when two newspapers merged—the News and the Free Press. Someone introduced a hyphen into the merger, and the paper became The Chattanooga News-Free Press, which sounds as though the paper were news-free, or devoid of news. Obviously, we ask too much of a hyphen when we ask it to cast its spell over words it does not adjoin."
posted by laumry at 8:47 AM on June 30 [2 favorites has favorites]

(strike any of, sorry.)
posted by rokusan at 8:47 AM on June 30

I haven't verified it, but the lore is that back in the early/mid nineteenth century a tariff bill was before the House that included "there shall be no tax on fruit-trees." Some wag successfully amended the "-" to a ",".
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:01 AM on June 30

twenty one dollar bills vs. twenty-one dollar bills
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:05 AM on June 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

The site Experts-Exchange.com used to not have the hyphen, thus spelling out ExpertSexChange.com.
posted by johnio at 9:18 AM on June 30 [3 favorites has favorites]

"You don't have to work that hard on Saturday." vs "You don't have to work that hard-on Saturday."
posted by fings at 9:25 AM on June 30

Q: What's the best thing about sex with twenty[- ]five-year-olds?
A: There are twenty of them.
posted by sanko at 9:46 AM on June 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

McDONALD'S NOW SERVING ALCOHOL FREE BEER
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:50 AM on June 30

High school students.
posted by booth at 10:00 AM on June 30

This could very well be the stuff of urban legend, but while I was in college we heard the story of a student group holding an Anti Gay-Hate Rally... and you've probably guessed that the story ends with the signage misprinted as Anti-Gay Hate Rally.
posted by non sum qualis eram at 11:00 AM on June 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

Eight Legged Freaks vs Eight-legged Freaks.
posted by Billegible at 12:14 PM on June 30

Your question reminds me of the film "The Conversation"

A taped snippet of a conversation where inflection changes the whole meaning of the sentence:

"He'd kill us if he had the chance."

Great film.
posted by effluvia at 12:14 PM on June 30

Just realized I can improve my previous example to make it a three-way:

twenty one-dollar bills vs. twenty-one dollar bills vs. twenty-one-dollar bills
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:44 PM on June 30

Once upon a time, penisland.com was the web site of Pen Island, who would sell you pens featuring their domain. And experts-exchange.com used to be expertsexchange.com.
posted by usonian at 2:09 PM on June 30

I haven't been able to find who coined the term, but I've seen "mishy-phen" used to describe words or phrases that are amusingly mishy-
phenated.
posted by moonmilk at 2:28 PM on June 30

The placement of a hyphen in the word therapist is something you'd want to be careful about.
posted by SomePerlGeek at 3:02 PM on June 30

Some great ones here - thanks so much for your help.
posted by Blackwatch at 3:16 AM on July 1

I know something like this in swedish:

"Mörkhårig sjukgymnast" means darkhaired physiotherapist, while
"Mörk hårig sjuk gymnast" means dark, hairy, sick gymnast.
posted by Ingenting at 1:26 PM on July 1