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I am correcting my thesis on stellar evolution, and I was wondering what the correct hyphenation of 'tidally enhanced wind mass loss' is. The meaning of it should be mass loss originating from a wind, and that wind is tidally enhanced.

I would go for: tidally-enhanced-wind mass loss, but I also found tidally-enhanced wind mass loss, and tidally-enhanced wind mass-loss. What is correct?

dfg
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    The commutativity test: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/100818/when-to-use-a-hyphen-to-coin-a-new-word-and-when-to-omit-a-hyphen/100822#100822 – Blessed Geek May 07 '15 at 07:51
  • Thanks, when applying that test I get my original thought: tidally-enhanced-wind mass loss. – dfg May 07 '15 at 08:10
  • That seems the best option. Your initial inclination was correct. – Brian Hitchcock May 07 '15 at 08:37
  • The second option sounds like loss of "wind mass" (whatever that is), and the third sounds like the wind is experiencing loss of mass. You need the first version to make it clear that wind is the agent, not the subject. – Barmar May 08 '15 at 16:10
  • I would generally not encourage hyphenation of adverbs such as "tidally". However, given this construct, I concur that the collective of "tidally-enhanced-wind" is preferable. – David W May 15 '15 at 13:17
  • "tidally-enhanced wind-mass loss" seems to emerge as the way I would do it. Depending on which day of the week it was (e.g. Tuesday), I might forego the second hyphenation altogether - leaving only "tidally-enhanced". – PCARR May 17 '15 at 16:47
  • Definitely tidally-enhanced-wind mass loss. The rule is to hyphenate compound adjectives, but not compound nouns. And the result is not ambiguous (unless you consider the unlikely possibility that what is losing the mass is a tidally-enhanced wind). – Peter Shor May 19 '15 at 01:16
  • I thought it was a rule to not use a hyphen with words ending in "-ly"... – DanielST May 21 '15 at 15:46
  • @slicedtoad: only when those words are modifying an adjective which is itself modifying a noun which isn't modifying anything. – Peter Shor May 24 '15 at 00:28
  • I'd be inclined to skip the hyphens entirely. There definitely should not be a hyphen between "wind" and "mass" unless "wind-mass" is a technical term (which, based on the question is definitely not the case). – Hot Licks May 26 '15 at 01:19

4 Answers4

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I suggest rewording it altogether. Nothing is going to be good.

However, if you can't do that, how about "tide-enhanced wind mass loss"? I don't see why it needs to be "tidally."

Or, you could consider using an en-dash, as in "tide-enhanced–wind mass loss."

Margaret
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  • Unfortunately science is filled with strings of nouns like this, and the string of words gradually acquire a known and distinct meaning that is more precise than that which is merely implied by the individual words. The readers of this thesis will all know what tidally enhanced wind mass loss is before they have reached the end of the third word. – Calchas Jun 18 '15 at 21:10
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The Chicago Manual of Style (pdf) says adverbs ending in ly + participle are not hyphenated. Double nouns (“wind mass”) are hyphenated when having two equal functions, but not when the former qualifies the latter. E.g. city-state v. student nurse.

Based on those rules, I would write:

tidally enhanced wind mass loss

Rasmus
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Clearly you would not want to hyphenate "wind mass" under any circumstances, since the larger phrase does not involve "loss" of "wind mass," but "loss of mass" due to "tidally enhanced wind." But in my view, the phrase "tidally enhanced wind mass loss" is a bit too much of a mouthful for readers to make sense of easily in its compact, five-word form.

I think readers would be better off if they were presented instead with

loss of mass due to tidally enhanced wind

on first occurrence, and perhaps with

wind-caused mass loss

or

mass loss to wind

thereafter.

As Rasmus indicates in another answer, the general guideline in the Chicago Manual of Style, fifteenth edition (2003), for handling -ly + participle combinations is not to include a hyphen:

7.87 Adverbs ending in "ly." Compounds formed by an adverb ending in ly plus an adjective or participle (such as largely irrelevant or smartly dressed) are not hyphenated either before or after a noun, since ambiguity is virtually impossible.

So if you were following Chicago style advice, you wouldn't want to hyphenate "tidally enhanced wind"—especially when that phrase is broken out into a more manageable phrase by the wording "loss of mass due to tidally enhanced wind." In fact, with that wording you don't need any hyphens at all, since ambiguity (which hyphens are pressed into service to overcome) isn't a problem.

Sven Yargs
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Quite true about -ly adverbs: they are never hyphenated, though you see it done every day in the more pedestrian online newspapers. The phrase in question, here, is stiff and hard to visualize. Quite right to shuffle the syntax this way or that. Let's see...not so easy...you know, Philip Roth rewrote every paragraph 70 times, and the goal is music and visuals to make the information come alive. You have: 'Tidally enhanced wind mass loss," and the meaning you want is that there was loss of mass caused by a wind which was tidally enhanced. What about saying that? You have the event front and center, followed by what caused it, then what had a bearing on this cause.

Kathy C.
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