Diane Wiessinger wrote:
> As someone said earlier, there's a tendency for two words to become a
> compound word as the image they represent becomes more and more
mainstream.
> .... the point where the two words in the compound word lose their
individual
> meanings altogether.

Diane,
   During the many years I've been writing on breastfeeding, the standard
spelling has gradually changed, to incorporate the notion that
"breastfeeding" is a concept or a single idea, like "heartbeat".  In 1974,
when the first edition of my Successful Breastfeeding was published in
Sydney,  the spelling standard was usually as two words "breast feeding",
although some dictionaries used a hyphen.  I used a hyphen throughout by
book ("breast-feeding") and was disappointed that the publisher had put it
as two words on the front cover and title page.  The next publisher also put
it as two words on the cover, but eventually both text and front cover moved
to a single word, "breastfeeding".  For years now, Certainly sicne my second
book in 1984, I've never spelt it any way but as a single word.
    The (Australian) Macquarie Dictionary and the spell-checks based on it
give "breastfeeding" as one word.  The American spell-check on my computer
prefers the hyphen - which I ignore.

     Diane also wrote:
> The formula companies, of course, would rather not see that happen.
You'll
> rarely see "breastfeeding" as one word in their literature.  It's far less
> appealing, I'm sure they figure, if it's just another feeding mechanism,
so
> they want to make sure that that exposed breast and that feeding function
> don't get lost in a compound word.

     Now, this is a very interesting perception.  I'd never thought of that!
When one comes to think of it, subtleties like this abound in marketing.
          Virginia
          In sunny, dry Brisbane

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