prefix spelling: with or without hyphen? - (Apr/26/2008 )

you find to read:

coexpression or co-expression

antiapoptotic or anti-apoptotic

prosurvival or pro-survival

preincubation or pre-incubation, etc


I personally would only use a hyphen if two prefixes are used to improve readability, f.i.:

homo-oligomeric

hyper-transphosphorylation, etc


Does anyone know a fix orthographical rule?

---

Unfortunately, I think the hyphen is being made redundant, because people can't be bothered using it. Personally, I'd keep it in, because it's always clearer using it than not using it. The same applies to most punctuation marks: they're placed there to make reading the passage easier.

Have you read Lynn Truss' great little book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"? It's subtitled "A zero-tolerance guide to punctuation", or something similar. The point made is that punctuation is a fluid thing. What we consider good punctuation today would have been considered very lazy 50 years ago, and what passed for good and correct punctuation 100 years ago sounds really over the top nowadays.

---

I know that is Panda

I try keeping the hyphens if I know they should be there but never understood where they should be and from where can they be omitted.

---