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Bidirectional or Bi-directional

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Andreas Prilop

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Aug 16, 2012, 1:56:53 PM8/16/12
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Who prefers "bidirectional" and who prefers "bi-directional"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bidirectional_text&redirect=no

--
I used to believe in reincarnation in a former life.

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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Aug 16, 2012, 2:28:54 PM8/16/12
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On 2012-08-16 17:56:53 +0000, Andreas Prilop said:

> Who prefers "bidirectional" and who prefers "bi-directional"?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bidirectional_text&redirect=no

It depends. If I were writing for myself or a British publisher, I'd
put the hyphen; if I were writing for an American publisher I'd leave
it out.


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athel

Mark Brader

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Aug 16, 2012, 2:57:17 PM8/16/12
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Andreas Prilop:
> > Who prefers "bidirectional" and who prefers "bi-directional"?

I prefer the hyphen, but not very strongly. In a piece of writing where
this and similar words were used a lot, I'd be more likely to omit it.

Athel Cornish-Bowden:
> It depends. If I were writing for myself or a British publisher, I'd
> put the hyphen; if I were writing for an American publisher I'd leave
> it out.

I think the editors at both publishers would be likely to change it.
Most British publishers would have insisted on the hyphen before the
great British punctuation shortage developed in the 1950s, though.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "C takes the point of view that the programmer
m...@vex.net | is always right" -- Michael DeCorte

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Harrison Hill

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Aug 16, 2012, 3:01:22 PM8/16/12
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On Aug 16, 6:56 pm, Andreas Prilop <prilop4...@trashmail.net> wrote:
> Who prefers "bidirectional" and who prefers "bi-directional"?

I prefer the hyphen, because otherwise the first syllable is "bid" for
the nanosecond it takes to read past it.

Curlytop

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Aug 19, 2012, 5:43:01 AM8/19/12
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Andreas Prilop set the following eddies spiralling through the space-time
continuum:

> Who prefers "bidirectional" and who prefers "bi-directional"?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bidirectional_text&redirect=no

I've used the word several times, in speech and writing, and I prefer it
without the hyphen. I never see it as beginning with "bid" since any
legitimate compound thereof would double the d ("bidder", "bidding").
--
ξ: ) Proud to be curly

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