ever shorter

[GG]

"For how long, no one knows, with food and everything in ever shorter
supply."

Is "ever shorter" a good equivalent for "increasingly shorter," in case
a less pretentious/sophisticated sentence is sought?

Thanks.

[Glenn Knickerbocker]

Yes. A more formal but less wordy and convoluted expression might be
"in decreasing supply."

ŹR

[GG]

Thanks.

[Guy Barry]

"GG" <not_here@no_where.com> wrote in message
news:jvhhi6$ore$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

I would say that "ever shorter" is slightly more old-fashioned, but it's
still understood, especially in set phrases like "ever decreasing circles",
or "an ever closer union" (which appears somewhere in the European Union
treaties, I think).

In everyday usage I'd probably say "shorter and shorter".

--
Guy Barry

[CDB]

"Increasingly shorter" has its problems. An unpretentious
alternative
would be "shorter and shorter".

[Eric Walker]

To my ear, it is actually superior, as being pithier without, in fact,
being any less "sophisticated". But it should be hyphenated: "ever-
shorter supply" (being a compound adjective).


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[Guy Barry]

"Eric Walker" <em...@owlcroft.com> wrote in message
news:jvkcjm$ot$5...@dont-email.me...

I'd call "ever" an adverb here, and I don't think it needs a hyphen. I
certainly wouldn't use one in "their supplies grew ever shorter".

--
Guy Barry

[Eric Walker]

This seems to me a grey area. In compound adjectives, we normally
hyphenate when the lead word is an adverb not obviously so ("obvious"
usually meaning ending in '-ly'), as in the distinction between--

. a yellow window envelope (a window envelope of yellow paper, window
color not specified)

--and--

. a yellow-window envelope (a window envelope with a yellow-tinted
window, paper color unspecified).

The general use of the hyphen is to tell us that the hyphenated words
need to be interpreted as a unit to make the sense the writer intended
(as in the difference between a dancing girl and a dancing-girl). So on
the one hand, we can argue that as "ever" is always adverbial, no hyphen
is needed; but (I feel) there is a counter-argument that "ever-shorter"
is a unitary concept to a greater degree than the unhyphenated words
suggest.

But assuredly one would not use a hyphen in "Their supplies grew ever
shorter"; that is the same difference as in "It was a well-made cake" and
"The cake was well made", or "a rock-solid basis" and "a basis that is
rock solid".


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker