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Subject:
From:
"Kathleen G. Auerbach" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 3 Apr 1996 22:13:58 -0500
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text/plain
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From:    Margery Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: breastfeeding vs. breast-feeding

Ruth, ILCA studied this issue-- Kathy A. weren't you on the committee? As I
recall, "breastfeeding" was the decision. We (ILCA) seem to stand alone on
the spelling, since all spell-check systems, dictionaries and style manuals
seem to want a hyphen. Yet another hill to climb, we shall overcome... ;-}

Actually, ILCA did NOT study it, although Nomenclature committee did
include it among the words it looked at. The committee was disbanded for
lack of sufficient activity and lack of leadership (consistnet).

Discussions of the appropriate word use predates ILCA by many years. Beth
Guss and I did an editorial for Journal of Tropical Pediatrics (published
in 1984 or 1985, I believe) which derived from my own review of MEDLINE
listings.

The pattern of spelling has evolved from original form: two words [breast
feeding] through an intermediate form: hyphenated word [breast-feeding] and
now is increasingly used as a single compound word [breastfeeding].  When
Felicity Savage was ILCA's International Delegate, she contacted the Oxford
Dictionary people and was informed that dictionary's REFLECT common usage
(as opposed to establishing correct usage which others must follow).

As more and more journals use the single compound word, dictionaries and
other paeans to "correct" (read preferred) usage will reflect this. At the
moment, they still reflect the hyphenated form. This does not mean people
cannot use other forms. They simply have to be firm about it. WHen I had an
article accepted for publication in a medical journal some years ago, I
insisted that they use the single word form, whcih they usually do not use
(preferring the hyphanated form). The copy editor called me and we
discussed it AGAIN. She said she feared their readers would think it an
error, but accepted my preference (as author) to keep it as a single word.
Let's hear it for being firm in one's resolve. You may not always convince
everyone; but it is worth a good hard try.  Never know whose mind you might
change!

Hope this helps.

PS Letters to the editor re: above stuff about Oxford Dicitionary is in old
issues of JHL--don't recall which ones, but I suggestr you try 1988 or
thereabouts.




Def. of LC service: "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities
brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Homewood, IL)- [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.mcs.com/~auerbach/lactation.html

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