![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But the stronger British inclination to include hyphens in unfamiliar prefixed words may be decisive in this instance. Admittedly, autopopulate doesn't involve a collision of vowels or consonants, any more than automobile does. Re-entry, de-ice, anti-intellectual, quasi-scientific, pro-life, semi-invalid, pre-eminent, non-effective, non-negotiable, ex-directory, vice-chancellorĪlthough Oxford doesn't include any examples involving the prefix auto-, I would not be surprised if it endorsed the spelling auto-populate "to avoid confusion"-as it does in the case of non-effective. Words with prefixes are often set as one word, but use a hyphen to avoid confusion or mispronunciation, particularly when there is a collision of vowels or consonants: It presents these guidelines for British English practice: practice" in situations where Oxford would endorse using a hyphen-as with the words noneffective, nonnegotiable, reelect, and reenter. The Oxford Guide to Style (2002) notes that "The hyphen is used less in U.S. Nevertheless, they did offer general advice on how to handle prefix hyphenation that is readily applicable to auto-prefixed words. To my chagrin, none of them addressed the specific prefix auto. I consulted several style guides to see how they recommended handling words that begin with various prefixes. ![]()
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