Michael N. Marcus discusses writing, editing, design, publishing, marketing, language, culture, politics, food and other things. This blog started in 2008, was on hiatus for the summer and fall of 2017, and restarted in December. Michael took time away from blogging for much of 2019 and 2020 to write books.
We currently do not publish on a regular schedule.
---The members of Booksie.com named this blog one of the Top 100 Writing Sites.---
I agree with Katherine. Breaking down the word into "depend" or "dependent" doesn't seem to help because each is hyphenated differently (as "de-pend" but "in-de-pend-ent").
As a writer/editor, I can say only that this is a tossup! Our language is still evolving.
Thi-s i-s fuckin-g r-idi-culou-us.
ReplyDeleteI'm reluctant to disagree with Webster, but since depend is hyphenated as de-pend, I'll bet 50 cents on independ-ent.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, we do have pen-dant, so maybe MW is right.
I agree with Katherine. Breaking down the word into "depend" or "dependent" doesn't seem to help because each is hyphenated differently (as "de-pend" but "in-de-pend-ent").
ReplyDeleteAs a writer/editor, I can say only that this is a tossup! Our language is still evolving.