noisemakers or noise makers

English translation: no space or hyphen required

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	noisemaker
Selected answer:	no space or hyphen required
Entered by:	Roddy Stegemann

03:43 Dec 21, 2003

English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO]
Science / behavioral sciences

English term or phrase: noisemakers or noise makers

In preparation for the rapidly approaching holiday season I have developed a certain curiosity about the word (noisemaker / noise maker / noise-maker).

Many statistical methods attempt to separate randomly occurring events from those with clear cause and effect relationships. In this setting noise is an unwanted phenomenon, and the noisemakers are rarely known and largely ignored.

On the other hand, there are government noisemakers, whose sole job it is to create and spread noise. This is disinformation whose intended effect is to obscure otherwise meaningful cause and effect relationships entertained by a general public in search of understanding.

Another kind of noisemaker are those who purposely try to disrupt dialogue by targeting certain individuals or a group of individuals. The effect is very similar to that of the government propagandists, but the motivation is far more personal, often vindictive, and seldom worthy. This is a very common on electronic bulletin boards.

Both the government propagandists and the bulletin board noisemakers are sometimes difficult to detect, because the environments in which they operate are already quite noisy. Over time, however, all noisemakers are revealed, because their incoherence is finally made coherent by those who are disturbed by their noise.

Finally, at holiday celebrations noise and their makers are highly desired for their effort to drown out anything closely related to rational thought and serious discourse. The idea is to have fun, relax, and simply let go. It is a kind of advance training for die hards of all sorts.

And now my question. Which is more correct: noisemaker or noise maker? Could it be noise-maker?

... And to think that I have not even breached the topic of the instruments employed by noisemakers to make noise.

Have I been noisy?

Roddy Stegemann KudoZ activity Questions: 666 (4 open) (6 without valid answers) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 1221 United States
Local time: 13:14

noisemakers

Explanation:
According to Webster and other dictionaries, noisemaker is correct.

I would say though that noise maker is acceptable too. Noise-maker looks a bit odd to me.

Selected response from:

NGK
United States
Local time: 15:14

Grading comment

Everyone appears to agree that the noise and the noise's maker are closely related and that no space should be wasted between them. As noisemakers, whatever their motivation or cause, have been around for some time, it appears that the hyphen is unnecessary.

Thank you for the excellent examples.
I hope you are enjoying a merry second day of Christmas!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +2

noisemakers

NGK

4 +2

noise-makers

Subhamay Ray (X)

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

noisemakers

Explanation:
According to Webster and other dictionaries, noisemaker is correct.

I would say though that noise maker is acceptable too. Noise-maker looks a bit odd to me.

Reference: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?noisemaker
Reference: http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/noisemaker

NGK
United States
Local time: 15:14
Native speaker of:

English,

German
PRO pts in pair: 379

Grading comment

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

noise-makers

Explanation:
The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary; Ed: Lesley Brown;Clarendon Press, Oxford.

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Note added at 2003-12-21 07:37:57 (GMT)
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When two or more words are combined to form a compound, a hyphen is usually required. However, a hyphen is normally redundant between words that can better be written as one word: eg., waterfowl. Common sense aids us in the decision but a dictionary is more reliable. Webster, of course, writes it as one word as cited above. The steady evolution of the language seems to favour union; two words eventually become one, usually after a period of hyphenation. In my opinion we can\'t do away with the hyphen in \"noise-maker\". The writer will have to make his choice.

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Note added at 2003-12-21 13:29:24 (GMT)
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Being intrigued by the subject, I have been reading some other books. Eric Partridge in his \"The Concise Usage and Abusage\" says : \"The hyphen is especially useful in objective combinations in which the the first noun is the virtual object of the action denoted or connoted by the second noun\"!

Subhamay Ray (X)
Local time: 01:44
Native speaker of:

Bengali
PRO pts in pair: 20

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