I'm confident in my abilities regarding where to place and not place hyphens except in one area: when you have a phrase that consists of a noun and a noun that consists of a verb with -er at the end, does that get a hyphen?
For instance, if I'm talking about a scheme that will give you twice as much money as you had before, is that a "money doubler" or is it a "money-doubler"? Some instances of this sort of phrase just turn it into one word like "heartbreaker" or "homemaker."
I have no idea what to call this, so I don't know what to Google. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Answer
There is a lot of fluidity to compound words. Though you will see cry-baby and low-life and to-day seldom today, they used to be common. (Not all words go this way -- we used to get off our hobby-horse and eat some ice-cream, but these are largely separated by a space to-day.)
I would consider the no-space, no-hyphen forms like homemaker and chickpea to be reserved for the most familiar terms which happen case-by-case.
I don't think there is a general rule. The New York Times Manual of Style lists dozens upon dozens of specific word combinations so that their editors know how to speak of airfields, air-conditioners, and air rifles.
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