Re: house plant/houseplant

**J* L* <h*@yahoo.com>**

It appears that Google has at least four times the entries for house plant as for houseplant. (I got different numbers from GoogleFight and just doing a Google search, but house plant was the big winnter in both.) 

Dictionaries vary -- American Heritage and Merriam-Webster both prefer one word. (OED -- British -- uses two words.)

But let's face it. We can state our preferences all we like, but we aren't the ones who decide this, unless we're publishers (or, sometimes, editors). If you're writing a book or a magazine article for a publisher whose style is set at houseplant or house plant, that's what you'll be using. If you just blog, then you can use whichever you prefer (and back it up with all kinds of reasons).

I've gotta say I love the wonderful one-word combos you creative folks have come up with. A real hoot!

Merry Christmas!

Judy Lowe
http://features.csmonitor.com/gardening

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:24:48 -0500
From: loisdan@juno.com
Subject: Re: [GWL] house plant/houseplant
To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <20081224.112448.1716.0.loisdan@juno.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

OK, I can't stand it any longer. The word "house" is a noun used as an
adjective to delimit (not just describe) the word "plant." Therefore, it
should be "house plant," as opposed to some other kind of plant (for
example tropical plant, or landscape plant). If you think of another term
that means the same thing, the proper use becomes clear. We would never
write "indoorplant," but rather, "indoor plant."

I tried to keep quiet, but I just couldn't help myself.

Merry Christmas, everyone.
Lois
Visit: http://loisdevries.blogspot.com

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