Quote:
Originally Posted by stickybuns
Hmm.. Random House Webster's had it listed as "naysayer." Anybody got access to the OED?
ETA: "Compound terms are often introduced into the language as separate or hyphenated words, and as they become more commonplace, they tend to fuse into a single word" (American Psychological Association's Publication Manual, pg 90 section 3.11).
So, historically, it was originally nay sayer... then nay-sayer... and now it's turned into naysayer.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The Kindle uses the Oxford Dictionary, and it too has "naysayer" - no hyphen.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stickybuns
I was thinking of the ginormous, multi-volume OED that gives the history of every word in the English language. I'm curious when the hyphen disappeared.
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Very cool!
What i would like to know is if we can get a ginormous multi-volume OED on the Kindle!?!
Oh, Blossom suggested the 1913 (?) Dictionary posted here on MobileRead - to be used for older text with obsolete terms, but it completely killed Cailbre. It took forever trying to open in the book view so I deleted it.