[meteorite-list] Strewnfield or Strewn Field?

From: Zelimir Gabelica <Zelimir.Gabelica_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:44:15 +0100
Message-ID: <201001150743.o0F7hnXI009205_at_smtpmul2.univ-mulhouse.fr>

Yes Chris, I fully agree with you regarding the
falling out of hyphenated words.

Another such example is "portmanteau" you are using here in your post.
This word derives from the French "porte-manteau"
(laterally "coat (and hat) rack") that is now
currently written (yes, even in French) "portemanteau".
But English still went a step forward by omitting the "e".
And now in dictionary (e.g. Harrap's Shorter) or
on "i-Google", you can find that English
"portmanteau" translates into French
"portemanteau", word that has now 2 different
meanings in English ("coat rack" and "hybrid word").

Another such example that puzzled me at the time
was "South-East", written as such on official
maps showing "South-East Alaska" areas.
However, when in the area, i noted everywhere
(streets, posts stuck on walls...) "Southeast".

Usage to which I am quite favorable.

BTW: in the "Harraps", "strewnfield" does not exist.
But now, here in France, since meteorites became
popular, the English word "strewnfield" (never
"strewn field") is more and more used as....a (bastard) French word!
(the correct French name is still "ellipse de
chute", literally ""fall ellipse").

Allmybest,

Zelimir


At 04:48 15/01/2010, Chris Peterson wrote:
>This is English you're talking about. What is
>"correct" is determined by usage. "Strewn field"
>is undoubtedly acceptable, and is the
>traditional way of writing it. However, there is
>a growing trend in recent English usage to
>construct hybrid or portmanteau words-
>especially in technical areas (thus, "webpage"
>is now probably more common than "web page"). So
>it isn't surprising to see "strewnfield" used
>more often these days. Hyphenated words seem to
>be falling out of favor somewhat.
>
>IMO, any form is fine, but you should exercise
>consistency. It would be distracting to see it
>used different ways in the same discussion.
>
>Chris
>
>*****************************************
>Chris L Peterson
>Cloudbait Observatory
>http://www.cloudbait.com
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
>To: "Meteorite-list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
>Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:39 PM
>Subject: [meteorite-list] Strewnfield or Strewn Field?
>
>
>>Hi Listees,
>>
>>Thanks to you all who've written in with kind
>>words and comments on my new article a few days
>>back titled "What is a Meteorite Strewnfield?"
>>I really appreciate your compliments. I hope
>>you all enjoyed it. If you haven't read it yet
>>please do so. It's a good informative read, and
>>even has some pretty pictures too. ;)
>>
>>The reason for this email is to ask about
>>proper use of the word(s) strewnfield. While
>>researching the article I noticed that the
>>numerous websites on the internet had 2 ways of
>>spelling the it. Should it be "Strewnfield" one
>>word... or "Strewn Field" two seperate words?
>>
>>Every time I type in strewnfield in a search it
>>comes up with "Did you mean?" "strewn field"
>>with a space. I've seen it described as "Strewn
>>field" on Wikipedia.
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strewn_field Then
>>in the paragraph just below it reads
>>"strewnfield" all one word again. To make
>>matters more confusing Encyclopedia Britannica
>>has the word with a hyphen i.e; strewn-field.
>>http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569002/strewn-field
>>Google shows 67,500 results for the phrase
>>"strewn field" and the same amount for
>>strewn-field" with a hyphen, meaning they don't
>>recognize the hyphen. Google also shows 23,700
>>results for the single word "strewnfield". Not
>>to mention the many articles and papers all
>>over the internet with ALL 3 ways of usage of the word.
>>
>>So which is it? or does it really matter?
>
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Prof. Zelimir Gabelica
Universit? de Haute Alsace
ENSCMu, Lab. GSEC,
3, Rue A. Werner,
F-68093 Mulhouse Cedex, France
Tel: +33 (0)3 89 33 68 94
Fax: +33 (0)3 89 33 68 15
Received on Fri 15 Jan 2010 02:44:15 AM PST