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Should a two-word noun that modifies be hyphenated?

English Language & Usage Asked by K Grey on April 8, 2021

I came across the sentence "He is Fibonacci spiral attractive," and my first thought was that "Fibonacci spiral" should be hyphenated. I consulted my sister, and she thought it should be "Fibonacci spiral-attractive." Now I’m considering that I’m wrong about it needing any hyphen at all.

I’ve been scouring the internet for answers, but I don’t really know the technical terms, so I haven’t been very successful.

One Answer

There is a probable duplicate, but I've never seen this (doubtless nonce) compound secondary-modifier (adjective modifier, traditionally adverb) before.

Fibonacci∞spiral∞attractive.

Where if anywhere does one hyphenate?

Looking for similar strings that are idiomatic, we find

  • drop-dead gorgeous and arguably
  • lead-pipe cinch but
  • stone cold sober as well as stone-cold sober.

The latter is probably so idiomatic that a hyphen is felt to be unnecessary clutter. Practice may also vary with position of modifier (prenominal or predicative).

With the nonce candidate here, there is obviously a possibility of confusion, one factor being the unusual reference (a Fibonacci spiral). (Actually, the golden spiral looks more perfect ... I am assuming that the meaning here is supposed to be very, very rather than rugged, angular). To show that this is a cohesive unit (rather than spiral attractive), the gluing effect of a hyphen is best employed. Also, scare-italics for a nonce usage. And a clue to the intended meaning.

He's Fibonacci-spiral attractive.

Answered by Edwin Ashworth on April 8, 2021

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