Hyphen use

Question

First-born or firstborn?  laterborn or later-born?Thanks.

Tanit · Accepted Answer

AnonymousFirst-born or firstborn?

Um, it looks like you're opening a can of worms... Let's have a look at some dictionaries:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/first-born-childonly lists it as a noun, with the hyphen ...

first-born (child) noun
(C usually singular)
the first child of a set of parents
Olaf is my first-born.

... while Oxford gives it both as a noun and as an adjective, both with no hyphen:

a person's first child
firstborn adjective (only before noun) their firstborn son

According to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/first%20born, it can be both an adjective (with the hyphen) and a noun (no hyphen) ...

Main Entry: first·born
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
: first brought forth : eldest
- firstborn noun

... but for Longman it's the other way round (no hyphen when it's an adjective,; noun with the hyphen)

first?born (singular)
your first child
-firstborn adjective:
her firstborn son

I give up!

Anonymous · Answer

Anonymous First-born or firstborn? laterborn or later-born?Thanks.

is bad

Clive · Answer

But laterborn is incorrect, with or without a hyphen.

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