Mememememe!

[growler_south]

Leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me. It can only be one word. No more. Then if you feel like it, copy and paste this in your journal so that I may leave a word about you.

As seen in *everyone* else's journals. Final straw by whiskerfish

Honesty will gain you extra credits...

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... do hyphenates count as one word?

...for that matter, does "anal retentive" have a hyphen? :)

[bikerbearmark.livejournal.com]

You're asking a linguist geek this question? You're likely to get more than you reckoned for!

Compound words are still single words, whether they're generally written with a hyphen or with a space in between. "Able-bodied" has a meaning all its own, and is not really a combination of "able" and "bodied"; "eye candy" is not a combination of "eye" and "candy" (which is sort of "ewwwww..." when you think about it!).

As for whether the term is written "anal-retentive" or "anal retentive", sources differ. Encarta appears to prefer the hyphenated form, while the current Wiktionary article reports only "anal retentive". Of course, we could change that on Wiktionary - and isn't that cool?