I posted something about this privately, but have decided to jump in an
join the disucssion for all re: this point.

I appreciated the historical review provided by M. Radcliffe. To add to
that, I went back several years ago and began tracking use of the words in
MEDLINE listings.

The primary form at the beginning of the 20th century was breast feed.
Then the hyphenated form came into use.  More recently, the single compound
word "breastfeed" is coming increasingly into common usage.  The more we
use that word, the less other forms will be considered "commonly correct."
By the way, the dictionary is supposed to reflect "commonly accepted usage"
as contrasted with creating the "correct" usage.  Any idea why I would like
to see all of us use breastfeed as a single word? :-)




Def. of LC service: "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities
brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC - [log in to unmask]