Sunday, May 19, 2019

orthography - Hyphens in words with prefixes like neo-Nazism

I have a question regarding the use of hyphens in words with certain prefixes. For example,





Neo-Nazism
Neo-Confucianism
Neo-liberal




are words with a hyphen, but




Neoplatonism
Neocolonialism





are words without hyphens. I'm especially confused with neo-Confucianism and neoplatonism: one contains a hyphen and a capital letter and the other doesn't.



Is there a specific rule for hyphens in words with prefixes or is it purely arbitrary?

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