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I'd like to know the reason for the punctuation of the noun "brush-off" and the verb "to brush off": they have related meanings, but "brush-off" is the result of "to brush off", essentially. But one cannot write "to brush-off" as that just looks weird, as it is used for the noun version.

So the question, is the hyphen often used like this in English to differentiate a derived noun from a verb?

herisson
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greduan
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1 Answers1

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The punctuation mark you're talking about is a hyphen, not a dash, but either would be out of place in phrasal verbs like brush off, where in some meanings, the phrase will divide:

Sarah can't stand Mark, so she brushed him off at the party.

The noun derived from this verb is written with a hyphen: brush-off, but often a word may become so entrenched in the language that the hyphen disappears and the two elements are joined into one compound word. Callback, for instance, is rapidly overtaking the hyphenated form call-back.

KarlG
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  • Sorry, hyphen. In programming I only hear "dash". Also in programming I only ever saw "callback". Unless it's "call me back" or something like that. Is there a rule about this usage of the hyphen? – greduan Jan 07 '18 at 22:12
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    The general preference is for the use of a hyphen, but as I've explained, it's a dynamic process where some words move toward a compound without one. People have been giving each other the brush-off since the 1950s, so chances are good the hyphen is here to stay. You can always check a dictionary in each case, or, as with learning any language, copy the usage of those you want or need to impress. – KarlG Jan 07 '18 at 22:19
  • See also https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/435328/two-word-verbs-described-with-one-word-nouns/498895#498895 Also, in programming the hyphen probably doesn't show up because most languages don't allow hyphens inside identifiers or keywords (to avoid conflict with subtraction). – TextGeek Jun 03 '19 at 15:17