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03-01-2015, 12:41 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Belmont MA
Posts: 4,802
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Dr. grammarfuss rouses from his alcoholic stupor to ask...
...off guard or off-guard?
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03-01-2015, 01:45 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Plum Island, MA; Santa Fe, NM
Posts: 11,175
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The phrase has been used a good deal lately, for obvious reasons. Here's a typical example, from one of my favorite sources, which goes with off guard. And here's another off guard, again from a reliable and trusted source.
Prior to checking. I would have leaned toward off-guard, but probably indicated that either was fine, as long as you were consistent - and the best bet was to write it both ways and see which looked better in the context of the overall piece, other punctuation, even the type face (type-face?) used. But once I checked with the forces of wisdom and truth, that became irrelevant.
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03-01-2015, 02:00 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Florida, USA
Posts: 3,372
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Reliably, Michael Cantor's sources are right. The only case where you might consider the hyphenated version is if you used it (unusually) as an adjective, as in "it happened in an off-guard sort of way," but now that I said this, I can't recall having heard the expression used this way. Mostly off-hand for that. But "he was taken off guard" should be two words.
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03-01-2015, 03:05 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Belmont MA
Posts: 4,802
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And I, who was unable to avoid such reefs,
was borne [off-guard/off guard] to unseen shoals and rocks.
It's a translation; I don't make this stuff up.
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03-01-2015, 03:13 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Belmont MA
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Michael:
I mean, I am grateful you didn't quote from "Ready for Hillary" or "Weak-kneed for Warren" (Weak kneed? Weak Need?), but really, you can do a little better...
Mike
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03-01-2015, 03:25 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Plum Island, MA; Santa Fe, NM
Posts: 11,175
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Mike - I believe it's Heady for Hillary, and Wonks for Warren, but you get the idea.
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03-01-2015, 04:46 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Posts: 8,354
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Psst, Michael C...Hillary ditched the headbands back in 1992....
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03-01-2015, 06:00 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Belmont MA
Posts: 4,802
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I think Michael is confusing her with Eleanor Roosevelt again.
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03-07-2015, 03:56 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Belmont MA
Posts: 4,802
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I am going with the hyphen.
We'll see what the copy editor says.
Again, thanks to everyone!
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