It's kind of a copyeditorial sin to do things on your own (rather than to reflect writers' choices), but at one point I decided to start closing up "cell phone" to see if I could make "cellphone" happen.

(Writers don't seem to mind.)

It's not going so well.

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Often, writers’ “choices” are unduly influenced by MS Word spellcheck. The one from Word that drives me most crazy (because I use it a lot) is “decision-makers” with a hyphen. Also frustrating: its preference for leaving out commas in “optional” scenarios where a comma is clearly warranted.
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In general, I see people just deferring constantly to Word’s spelling conventions (esp w/compound words) and grammar corrections, even when the corrections are questionable.
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And what, then, does this tell us about bot spellchecks and grammar checks?
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Yes, right with you on this one!
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Just underscoring that writers’ “choices” about certain spelling and grammar choices are often not their own anyway anymore, so I’m not sure the default copyeditor deference is warranted anyway.
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Life favors the bold, even in lexical matters. Dare to disturb the universe. Write nouns like a German. :)
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Is the chart from Google's Ngram Viewer? I'm curious if you find that a useful tool.
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INVALUABLE.
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this is up there with getting rid of the hyphen in email
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Still waiting for a final verdict on health care/healthcare, since everyone seems to have different rules. 🤷‍♀️

(What my org currently uses: One word = adjective; two words = noun.)
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One word for both noun and adjective.

There's your final verdict.
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HUZZAH! That’s exactly what I was hoping for — let the confusion cease, writers everywhere!
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The only copyediting alteration I ever adopted because the sex was good.
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that’s amazing
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I mean, I knew which way the wind was blowing, and though I try not to be the first to institute a style change I never want to be the last, but that little bit of nose wrinkling pushed me over the edge.

Pretty sure I didn't tell my colleagues what had prompted my decision.
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can’t lose your reputation as a cold hard logic guy
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andy i just sent you an em-ail
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The problem with it is it looks too much like 'cellophane'
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“Cellphone” is just not a pretty as cell phone. The double L adjacent to the ph doesn’t look like a English word. “Cellphone” visually is more akin to to the name of ancient Greek beast of myth b
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At a certain point, it’ll have to be just a phone. I mean I don’t even call a landline a phone, it’s a landline.
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Maybe it's because I love German so much, but I think English could benefit from a lot more compound words.
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Is the dip in "cell phone" due to people just writing "phone" by default now?
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Or just ‘mobile’ as shorthand?
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"Mobile" is pretty much a nonstarter in American English; British English seems to have been using "cell phone" and "mobile phone" interchangeably, but the U.S. overwhelmingly preferred "cell phone."
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Interesting, thanks!

I’m old enough to remember microphones being called ‘mikes’ before (when?) suddenly becoming ‘mics’ which still catches my eye 🤷‍♂️
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Wow, check out the dip in the use of "telephone."
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This reminds me Brendan Fraser’s earnest line reading of “Thanks for calling me on the telephone!” (Blast from the Past) (Kind of a Tom Hanks vibe, now that i watch it again) https://youtu.be/X79Hse4VQk4
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No Lady Gaga-induced bump in 2009?
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Hadn't consciously noticed that one happening at all, but it immediately feels true and even obvious.
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I don’t know what the aggregate trend is, but I do see “landline” called out more as the exception to the norm
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That battle was fought and won going on a century ago.
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I consistently struggle with "back seat" and "back yard"--my first impulse is to close them up, but then they look wrong to me.
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Personally I would prefer closed for adjective (backseat driver, backyard play area) and open for noun (baby in the back seat, dog in the back yard). But I think current dictionaries generally close both.
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...which bothers me, because "front seat" and "front yard" are always open AFAIK. (Actually I would be okay with "back seat driver" or "back-seat driver," too.)
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What WAS a land-line or land line or landline circa 1940?
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Can't imagine it was a thing... maybe refers to something else?
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Good question!

The term seems to have originated in the mid-nineteenth century to refer to actual physical transportation; eventually, it seems, the term was adopted/adapted to refer to communication that didn't occur via radio waves.

As best I can tell.
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I'm finding some references to landline transport as opposed to water transport, but I'm finding many many more references to landline telegraphy, and telegraphy is one of those things I don't understand at all, so here's where I bow out.
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(Hadn't even thought about that! Thanks for the prompt!)
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Yes, sorry, I meant people specifying landline vs. phone (which is more commonly understood to mean cellphone)
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Oh oh oh oh, sorry, I didn't apprehend what you meant.

I'm probably of an age where I'll always call my cellphone my cellphone. I'd imagine that's way different for younger folk.
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How long did it take to get ppl to drop the hyphen in “email”? Or lower case “internet”? (Notice my properly placed question marks.)
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Do you even need to specify 'cell' anymore unless you're writing a period piece?
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This is a fascinating and helpful thread.

This one isn't a noun so it's a bit different, but I don't like "underway." The Canadian Press guide we use makes it one word so I do it, but it just doesn't look right to me (like if we wrote "stay ontopic" or "the work is inprogress").
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I do not like "underway" except in the rarely-seen construction "underway refueling," but it's been widely adopted.

(And yet I won't use it.)
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Why did I put a hyphen in what should have been "rarely seen"? That's the question of the moment.
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maybe bc it’s giving cellophane
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I'm pushing for "telefonino" - 25% success rate in my household so far (i.e. me).
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You’ll never catch up. First there were telephones. Then cordless phones. (And retronym “corded” phones.) Then mobile phones that use cell towers. In 2025 we will make voice calls on satellite-capable mobile devices via STARLINK. Satphones?
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Satphones have been a thing for the past 30 years.
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I honestly don't mind "cellphone" but I'd love it if whoever was responsible would give us "front seat" back.

But don't ask my why I hate "frontseat" but not "cellphone".
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Except no one ever does "frontseat."
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Really? Am I being deluded by the logically linked "backseat"?
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You might well be.

For whatever reason, we have backyard (as both noun and adjective, that is) but front yard, and backseat (ditto) but front seat.
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Ack threading. While you were typing that I Google n-grammed and you are right - for seat and yard, but not for porch. English is so weird!
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And for front/back step, the contrasting pattern returns (although "backstep" is not particularly common, which pleases me)
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I am! Check this out: "backseat" took off about 20 years ago, but "frontseat" never did, and that is BIZARRE
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And now, of course, we need to explain THAT. Same pattern (albeit weaker) for front yard/back yard. But NOT for front porch/back porch, which nobody closes up.
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Keep fighting the good fight, man. I’m right there with you.
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