It’s local election time here in Salt Lake City and candidates vying for votes have littered every spare square foot of public land with their signage:

Jinkins for Sheriff
Smith for Auditor
Robbins for District Attorney
Potter for some other boring position no one cares about

Everyone wants to get elected, or reelected. So bad, that the politicians have had to re-invent the language rules to emphasize that they’ve already been elected once. As a part-time, amateur English language bigot, I’d like to re-spond to their blatant dis-respect of our tongue. In sum, they need to re-view their signs, re-align themselves to the rules, re-write the copy, or re-move the Re-Election signs altogether!

A quick Google search reveals The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, which states ( Rule 8 ):

Use the hyphen with the prefix re only when:

the re means again
AND
omitting the hyphen would cause confusion with another word.
Examples Will she recover from her illness?
Re does not mean again.

I have re-covered the sofa twice.
Re does mean again
AND
omitting the hyphen would have caused confusion with another word.

The stamps have been reissued.
Re means again but would not cause confusion with another word.

I must re-press the shirt.
Re means again
AND
omitting the hyphen would have caused confusion with another word.

Yes, I know that the hyphen-less faction loses in the Google reelection fighting, then again, a lot of people go to Vegas and gamble, watch NASCAR and smoke cigarettes. Plenty of company does not intelligence make.

It is our (my) position that reelect is the correct writing and that re-elect is a deviant variant form.

Speaking of deviating, you probably know that the words “language” and “tongue” are related. Bilingual, the ability to speak in two languages, is quite literally “two tongues”. Here are some lingual (meaning tongue, not language) dexterity tests* for you:

  • cherry stem tying
  • starburst unwrapping
  • sunflower seed cracking

* I feel confident to comment on this matter because I’m often told I am a particularly good kisser. It’s mostly perfected technique gained from years of experience.

Thanks go to Beau Scott for the hyphen research.

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