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More Important Questions
September 10, 2009 - by Donny ShawHere’s the real elephant in the room for all of us following policy change proposals in the health industry – is it “health care” or “healthcare”?
Astute readers may notice that I personally have transitioned in the past few months form the former to the latter. From my very limited knowledge of Chomskyan linguistics, this is the way language works, and it’s OK. As we become more comfortable with certain phrases and spellings, they become the new standard and what is proper changes. Firefox tells me with a red underscore that “healthcare” is wrong, but my cultural intuition has begun telling me it’s right.
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Comments
Haha, I think you’re Donny. At least, two years of my copy editor forcing me to separate the words (see also: child care) lead me to believe so.
Oh yeah?! Well, I think you’re Avelino! So there.
Who are you? What are you doing here?
Ha! That’s so Donny
I don’t think there’s a linguistic reason to prefer one spelling over the other. That is, I don’t think the space makes anyone interpret the text any differently
-there are lots of idioms with spaces in them that don’t get shortened to a single word. But you’re right that standards can change. One well-respected and widely read person who idiosyncratically chooses one spelling over the other could shift the norm.Your resident linguist & civic hacker,
Josh of GovTrack
I got a chuckle from reading, “Firefox tells me with a red underscore that “healthcare” is wrong”.
I have had to correct that countless times in the last few months.
Rich Mitchell
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