Hyphen or Dash?

Originally posted 09/24/2008
I was out for a walk the other day and I got to thinking about hyphens and dashes. I have no idea why my mind drifted to this topic but I pondered it nonetheless. I figure there are probably a couple of different types of people out there; those who always properly refer to a hyphen as a hyphen and a dash as a dash and those who call just about everything a dash, unless they're trying to impress someone - then they say hyphen. I fall into the latter group.

When I returned from my walk, I went online to my favorite search engine and typed in something like "hyphen or a dash". It turns out there are a number of people who have spent a good deal of energy describing when to use a dash versus a hyphen. The more impassioned sites seem to go beyond mere grammatical usage. They assign an almost regal quality to the hyphen while regarding the dash as definitely working-class. Using a hyphen to do a job meant for a dash is insulting to a character of such fine, well, character. And the reverse, using a dash where a hyphen should be - well, that insults hyphens everywhere. Plus, it puts the poor lowly dash in a situation where it can't possibly succeed.

Yes, there are people who care deeply about this subject. I am not one of them. Frankly, it just seems like there are bigger things to worry about. Like the proper use of commas. Oh yeah, I suppose things like world hunger, war and genocide probably rank right up there as well.