Talk:Post-war

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Spelling error in name, See: Websters Dictionary ^[1] Postwar is spelled "postwar" See: FWIW Bzuk 02:14, 20 August 2007 (UTC).

This is probably a trans-Atlantic difference; see WP:ENGVAR. --Stemonitis 11:52, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Nope, I checked a wide range of dictionaries- all have it spelled "postwar." The only time it appears as "post-war" is in non-standard use. Wikipedia, for one, has post-war popping up along with a huge number of "over-hyphenated" words. FWIW Bzuk 12:28, 20 August 2007 (UTC).

The Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language, lists "post-war" only. It is only "over-hyphenation" in your opinion; I would consider "postwar" a clear case of "underhyphenation". There are significant differences between American English and Commonwealth English, and this is one of them; WP:ENGVAR applies. --Stemonitis 12:49, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

You may be right about the Oxford Dictionary definition but the overwhelming number of other dictionaries including the Chambers Reference Dictionary in England have the "postwar" spelling. I did a cursory Google search to find over 1,700,000 entries with the spelling given that way. This is another example of a word gradually changing its conventional spelling through acceptance by the majority of users. FWIW Bzuk 13:16, 20 August 2007 (UTC).

In my own writing, I would follow Fowler, and distinguish between the noun and the adjective. But I agree with Stremonitis here: leave it alone, or move to postbellum - now a redirect to a particular aftermath. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 17:15, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose per OED and what I've seen in books and newspapers. 132.205.44.5 22:15, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

• Move to Wiktionary, or move to "postwar period", so this article's subject can be a noun. The Canadian Oxford (2004) and New Oxford American (electronic, 2005) dictionaries both list "postwar", only, as an adjective. But please, add a reference or remove the speculation about when a postwar period ends. —Michael Z. 2007-08-20 22:24 Z

• Something does need to change, per Mzajac, because it's pretty hard for an adjective to be an encyclopedic topic. I doubt that the topic can be expanded upon at "post-war period", too, so I wonder if AfD isn't the way to go here. Dekimasuよ! 16:55, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.