to-day, to-night
I have seen to-day and to-night used in literature up to the 1920′s. When and why did this become obsolete?
Unpacking English, Bit by Bit
A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.
"Are you lonesome tonight?" was written in 1926, but Elvis Presley called it "Are you lonesome to-night?" in 1960.
tiigerrick Sep-12-2011
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My guess is that sometime in the 20s-30s the hyphen was viewed more and more as a cumbersome and superfluous fillip and thus dispensed with.
We're seeing a similar to-and-fro with "e-mail" and "email" (I use the latter myself).
JJMBallantyne Mar-03-2011
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The OED has the spelling "to-day" up to 1912. But it was also spelled without the hyphen as early as the 1700s.
goofy Feb-23-2011
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The 1920's?
Red1 Feb-22-2011
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