I would conjecture that this term must have originated with the phrase
"meteorite-strewn field," i.e. a field strewn with meteorites. If you
search for the term "rock-strewn" in publications, it virtually always
appears with the hyphen when used as an adjective, which I believe is
grammatically correct. For some reason, meteoriticists in the 1940s, who
seems to have brought the phrase into common usage, didn't like the
hyphen, and I'm not sure anybody ever actually used "meteorite-strewn
field" (or "tektite-strewn field") in a publication. Instead, you see
it without the hyphen (still a common form, "meteorite strewn field"),
and in the abbreviated forms without the word meteorite at all:
"strewn-field," "strewn field," and "strewnfield." But the word
meteorite (or, sometimes, tektite) is always implied; I don't think you
ever see mention of pumice strewnfields or hailstone strewnfields, etc.
It seems to me that a new word was then born, independent of the
original phrase. I think the hyphenated form can clearly be discarded
as a remnant of the original phrase, incorrectly hyphenated. The other
two forms are really both new coinages, and I think one might argue that
either could be "correct," if there is such a thing as correct. Both
are in common use now. If I were editing a publication, I would
probably make the stylistic choice of adopting the single-word version,
"strewnfield."
Jeff
On 2010-01-15 8:57 PM, Frank Cressy wrote:
Hello all,
I think it would be correct to use "strewnfield"...one word.
When someone talks about a corn field, two words are used. Another way to say this is :
"field of corn."
If "strewn field" is the correct, would one also be correct in saying "field of
strewn"? I don't think that works.
So I think the correct usage should be "strewnfield" like Martin used to use in
his columns.
Just my 2 cents,
Frank
________________________________
From: "[email protected]"<[email protected]>
To: Meteorites USA<[email protected]>
Cc: Meteorite-list<[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, January 14, 2010 7:52:16 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strewnfield or Strewn Field?
Hi Eric:
For about a year, this was a topic for the editors of Meteorite magazine.
We decided to be consistent with strewnfield since we had the column "From
the Strewnfields" by Martin Horejsi at the time (miss your articles in the
magazine, Martin).
Larry
Hi Listees,
Thanks to you all who've written in with kind words and comments on my
new article a few days back titled "What is a Meteorite Strewnfield?" I
really appreciate your compliments. I hope you all enjoyed it. If you
haven't read it yet please do so. It's a good informative read, and even
has some pretty pictures too. ;)
The reason for this email is to ask about proper use of the word(s)
strewnfield. While researching the article I noticed that the numerous
websites on the internet had 2 ways of spelling the it. Should it be
"Strewnfield" one word... or "Strewn Field" two seperate words?
Every time I type in strewnfield in a search it comes up with "Did you
mean?" "strewn field" with a space. I've seen it described as "Strewn
field" on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strewn_field Then in
the paragraph just below it reads "strewnfield" all one word again. To
make matters more confusing Encyclopedia Britannica has the word with a
hyphen i.e; strewn-field.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569002/strewn-field Google
shows 67,500 results for the phrase "strewn field" and the same amount
for strewn-field" with a hyphen, meaning they don't recognize the
hyphen. Google also shows 23,700 results for the single word
"strewnfield". Not to mention the many articles and papers all over the
internet with ALL 3 ways of usage of the word.
So which is it? or does it really matter?
Regards,
Eric Wichman
Meteorites USA
www.meteoritesusa.com
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US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA
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