Aw.

Earlier this month, the newest (and truncated) version of the OED got rid of many cherished hyphens. The editor, Angus Stevenson, "eliminated some 16,000 hyphens from the sixth edition," according to a New York Times article. Angus goes on to say, "“People are not confident about using hyphens anymore...[t]hey’re not really sure what they’re for.”

Sad. We love us some gross hyphen use. But some of them remain, like hyphens in compounds ("well-being"); but for words like "ice cream" and "cellphone," they're gone. (Much to our surprise, those words were still in there, staked with hyphens. Strange.)

But using them to link words into adjective phrase will never go out of style, really. Take, for example, "we disagree with your rude assessment that our why-won't-he-love-us-they-way-we-love-him SF Mayoral candidate looks like the guy from Mask," works well. As does, "San Francisco's addicted-to-L.A.-Looks-hair-gel is sure to win re-election."

The article also speculates that "people will be amused to discover that email used to be e-mail" one day in the future. But that seems like a word that should be removed from the English language altogether. 'Cause we're just that forward-thinking.