Advertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Origin and history of hyphen

hyphen(n.)

"short dash used to connect two words or separate one," 1620s, from Late Latin hyphen, from Greek hyphen "mark joining two syllables or words," probably indicating how they were to be said or sung. This was a noun use of an adverb meaning "together, in one," literally "under one," from hypo "under" (from PIE root *upo "under") + hen, neuter of heis "one," from PIE root *sem- (1) "one; as one, together with."

also from 1620s

Entries linking to hyphen

hyphenate(v.)

1881, from hyphen + -ate (2). The earlier verb was simply hyphen (1814). Related: Hyphenated; hyphenating. Hyphenated American "immigrant citizen perceived as having divided loyalties" is attested from 1889.

hyphenation(n.)

1881, from hyphen + noun ending -ation. Hyphenization is attested from 1851.

Advertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Trends of hyphen

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to explore

dash
c. 1300, "strike suddenly and violently," also "move quickly, rush violently," and, transitive, "cause to strike suddenly and violently;" probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Swedish daska, Danish daske "to beat, strike"), somehow imitative. The oldest sense is that in da
disease
.; the word still sometimes was used in its literal sense early 17c., and was somewhat revived 20c., usually with a hyphen...
re-form
Spelled with a hyphen from 17c. to distinguish it from the specific sense in reform; this is the original meaning of that...
autocar
the weight of its authority to the word "autocar," which it now prints without the significant inverted commas but with a hyphen...
shad
important food fish in the Atlantic, possibly from Scandinavian (Norwegian dialectal skadd "small whitefish"); but compare Welsh ysgadan (plural), Irish and Gaelic sgadan "herring." OED says Low German schade may be from English. There is a late Old English sceadd, but the word s
punctuation
1530s, "pointing of the psalms" (for the purpose of singing them), from Medieval Latin punctuationem (nominative punctuatio) "a marking with points in writing," noun of action from past-participle stem of punctuare "to mark with points or dots," from Latin punctus, past participl
write
Old English writan "to score, outline, draw the figure of," later "to set down in writing" (class I strong verb; past tense wrat, past participle writen), from Proto-Germanic *writan "tear, scratch" (source also of Old Frisian writa "to write," Old Saxon writan "to tear, scratch,
spell
early 14c., spellen, "read letter by letter, write or say the letters of;" c. 1400, "form words by means of letters," said in most etymology sources to be from Anglo-French espeller, Old French espelir "to mean, signify; explain, interpret," also "spell out letters, pronounce, re
hen
"the female of the domestic fowl," Old English henn "hen," from West Germanic *hannjo (source also of Old Frisian henn, Middle Dutch henne, Old High German henna), fem. of *hanan- "male fowl, cock" (source of Old English hana "cock"), literally "bird who sings (for sunrise)," fro
baccalaureate
1620s, "university degree of a bachelor," from Modern Latin baccalaureatus, from baccalaureus "student with the first degree," an alteration of Medieval Latin baccalarius "one who has attained the lowest degree in a university, an advanced student lecturing under his master's sup

Share hyphen

Advertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Trending
Dictionary entries near hyphen
Advertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.