MS Word likes to correct "subpoint" to "sub point"
Is there anything grammatically wrong with "subpoint"?
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2Hi Falcondance! What does your dictionary(ies) say? – Kristina Lopez Jan 14 '16 at 16:28
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See related threads, When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word?, Is subaccount one word?, Should I use hyphens with prefixes like “sub” and “semi”? and How do I spell “subdistrict”? – Kyle Jan 14 '16 at 16:29
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1Acceptable to whom? Where? How is it being used? There is no regulatory authority for English, so whether a particular word or a particular spelling of a word will be accepted depends a great deal on the context. Please edit your post to describe how you plan to use it, and for what audience. – choster Jan 14 '16 at 16:36
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This is trickier than it looks. There are entries in https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/subpoint and http://www.yourdictionary.com/subpoint, but none in OED, M-W, or Free Dictionary. – cobaltduck Jan 14 '16 at 17:00
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What do you want it to mean? Can you give the context sentence? – Mitch Jan 14 '16 at 17:59
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Whether "subpoint" is correct or not, it's commonly used, since about 1950. – Hot Licks Jan 14 '16 at 19:13
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1(MS Word likes to "correct" all sorts of things that it knows nothing about.) – Hot Licks Jan 15 '16 at 02:00
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@HotLicks - I'm not sure that that Ngram proves that 'subpoint' is commonly used; there's no frame of reference with which to compare. If we plot it next to 'clause' for example, it suggests that it's barely used at all – Charon Jan 15 '16 at 13:29
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1"Subpoint" may not seem official or even very nice, but in context it's both useful and comprehensible. That's much more important. – Chris H Jan 15 '16 at 13:40
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I'm collecting a handful of the comments into a CW post. Feel free to modify.
To begin, here are two dictionaries which do have an entry for subpoint:
And here are three that do not:
Whether the word is in some dictionary or not, it is clearly being used by authors, as this n-gram shows.
Finally, there have been other questions and answers on this ELU-SE that address similar, if not identical issues:
- Should I use hyphens with prefixes like "sub" and "semi"?
- When should compound words be written as one word, with hyphens, or with spaces?
- Is subaccount one word?
- How do I spell "subdistrict"?
From this, I think there is enough information for readers to draw their own conclusions.
cobaltduck
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