Over on Language Log, there's a post on a Cupertino error related to the word "highfalutin"--the spell checker changed it to "high flatulence," apparently bcs it was originally entered as two words.
high flatulence
I would never have thought it was one word--In fact, I'd have hyphenated it.
I think I'd only use it as an adj phrase before a noun--"that's a bunch of high-falutin' nonsense," but never "his comments are always high-falutin'."
Note the apostrophe to stand in for the g.
(falutin' apparently coming from "flute," perhaps, maybe, sez M-W)
Would *you* have automatically made it one word?
high flatulence
I would never have thought it was one word--In fact, I'd have hyphenated it.
I think I'd only use it as an adj phrase before a noun--"that's a bunch of high-falutin' nonsense," but never "his comments are always high-falutin'."
Note the apostrophe to stand in for the g.
(falutin' apparently coming from "flute," perhaps, maybe, sez M-W)
Would *you* have automatically made it one word?
1 comment:
I think I'd have spelled it as one word. That's how Webster's spells it. I even think I'd have been tempted to use the variant spelling ("hifalutin"), though for purely idiosyncratic reasons.
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