I’m gonna try and make a point here, so hang with me for a sec. I believe, even insist, that the word should be spelled startup, NOT start-up. And truthfully, it’s sort a sticky argument to make, mostly because the rules about when to use hyphens between fragments are vague; it’s more a matter of common use, rather than about the properties or origin of the words. So basically, it’s up to the masses to decide what sounds best. People seem divided on start-up vs. startup, so I’ll give my case:
First of all, don’t get me wrong, I love the hyphen - it’s a fantastic tool to breakup a sentence (more on that later), and a fantastic word-combining tool when you want to employ two words by themselves, as individual statements, yet associate them to form a singular thought. Like a section of blue sky against a section of green mountain to form the idea of a horizon in a painting, rather than blue mixed with green to form the idea of an ocean. Or a more literal example: eye-opener is (properly) hyphenated because the two words, eye and opener, paint the picture of dramatic understanding on their own, and only need to be loosely associated to intonate their connection. However, on the other hand, eyewitness is (properly) combined into one word because while eye and witness are words on their own, they don’t form a coherent picture on their own… they work only together, united as one thought and one image.
By the same token, start and up may be words on their own, but like eye and witness, they don’t paint a picture on their own; there’s no real artistic value to having them separated. They’re more fragments that come together to form a single word with a single purpose, and thus, I think they should be constructed that way… as one word. Startup. It doesn’t mean the combination of its two words. It means, simply and powerfully, a new company or idea growing out of its infancy.
What’s more, to build the case in other ways, startup preserves the hyphen for times when you need it - between sentence fragments, or between word fragments. It preserves an artistic tool so you can use it when you want to use it, and not overuse it. Plus, as a bonus, I think startup sounds better and looks better than start-up. Putting a hyphen in there takes a smooth, strong and simple word, and turns it into a lurching semi-word with bad timing. And as you know from reading the blog, timing is everything.
So, in the grand scheme of things, there are worse faults than writing start-up. But I think it’s wrong, and what’s more, I think people shouldn’t do it. From now on, I sincerely hope startup becomes the standard. If you could help with that, I’d sure appreciate it. Thanks!
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