Melvillian (non-)hyphenation
Language Log 2025-09-13
Frazz 9/10/2025 — Caulfield and Mrs. Olson discuss Melville's novel: 
Continued in Frazz 9/11/2025: 
It's true that Moby-Dick is hyphenated in the title of the 1851 American edition:
And also true that none of the other 80-odd instances of the whale's name in that edition are hyphenated, e.g.
In the British first edition, even the title is unhyphenated:
The Melville Electronic Library has side-by-side versions of the American and British first editions, with various textual observations — including this:
[I]n modern usage—both scholarly and now popularly—the hyphenated Moby-Dick designates the book; the unhyphenated “Moby Dick” represents the white whale.
Leaving the hyphen behind, there's more from Frazz, fore and aft of the two strips above — 9/8/2025: 
