Should it be “e-mail” or “email.” I think the hyphen is a must, but, then, I’m an unhip fuddy-duddy (and probably guilty of eliding it myself on more than one occasion). Read here, vote here.
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Keep the hyphen
Should it be “e-mail” or “email.” I think the hyphen is a must, but, then, I’m an unhip fuddy-duddy (and probably guilty of eliding it myself on more than one…
I prefer email…one less reach accross the keyboard.
though I’d prefer e-mail to either 3m41l or 3-m41l.
It is ironic that an era that touts itself as one of communication is more concerned about the efficiency of typing/keying vs the clarity of what’s being said.
That said, in IM contexts, at least, I tend to be more “efficient” than at other times. 🙂
My 1996 copy of the _WIRED_ style guide says drop the hyphen. I don’t think it harms clarity. “Email” written cannot be confused with too many other words and hardly anyone thinks of it as “electronic mail.” It’s “email.” It is, in fact, even phonetic — just like “egress.” The hyphen strikes me as archaic, a bit like Shakesperian actors stressing the past-tense “-ed” syllable.
So I’m curious, Dave, how do you feel the hyphen contributes to clarity?
Certainly there are words — egress, emote — that read properly without the hyphen. They also derive from single Latin words themselves. It seems to me that “email” doesn’t fall into the same category, and that it’s far too early in the linguistic history of the word (which dates back, in common parlance, no more than, say, 20 years) to consider the hyphen as “archaic.”
But, then, I am, as noted, a fuddy-duddy about such things. And am generally unimpressed by Wired as an arbiter of grammar and spelling.
Well, if the Wall Street Journal says to drop the hyphen, I guess that’s it, then.