Quote:
Originally Posted by BionicGecko
What makes a hyphenless compound word valid or not in English? Is it only usage, or presence of the word in the dictionary?
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US is different from British English. Also historically words in English outside USA change: Two words > hyphenated word > compound word, but some words in English won't lose the hyphen due to the pair of letters on other side.
Also historically US Dictionaries are Prescriptive (Webster deliberately changed spellings and ignored usage) and Britain with OED was deliberately wanting to capture usage, not dictate. Thus US English has less flexibility on spelling.
In Hiberno-English and British English there are no rules for hyphens in compound words, just current usage*. There are hyphen rules otherwise, like in -like as a suffix, or breaking a word for wrap.
See "The English Language" by Robert Burchfield
[* Except for certain pairs of letters and words that would be a common existing word if the hyphen was dropped.]