Browse Definitions :

Old-fashion or old-fashioned?

Writing for Business

Which is correct?
We’re planning an ___________ Christmas this year. We’ll be dining by candlelight — and banning iPhones at the table .
a. old-fashion
b. old-fashioned

Answer: b.

Explanation:
To fashion is to make; fashioned means made. Old-fashioned means made in the old way.

And without the hyphen? Neither! Never! Not “old fashion,” not “old fashioned.” When we combine two words to use as an adjective, we hyphenate.

Google poll, searching for verbatim:
old-fashion — 43,600,000 hits
old fashion — 865,000,000 hits
old-fashioned — 320,000,000 hits
old fashioned — 381,000,000 hits

Oh dear, oh dear. The worst possible spelling is by far the most popular. I was impressed to see, among the search results, that a lot of people actually have it wrong — especially as “old fashion” — in their business names. A word of advice — if you’re ever starting a business, make sure that you don’t name it something that makes you look less intelligent than you’d like. Check your grammar!

And in case anyone’s wondering, the same rule would hold for “old-style” and “old-school.”

Follow me on Twitter @tao_of_grammar

Dig Deeper on Writing for Business

Networking
Security
  • application blacklisting (application blocklisting)

    Application blacklisting --increasingly called application blocklisting -- is a network or computer administration practice used ...

  • juice jacking

    Juice jacking is a security exploit in which an infected USB charging station is used to compromise devices that connect to it.

  • hypervisor security

    Hypervisor security is the process of ensuring the hypervisor -- the software that enables virtualization -- is secure throughout...

CIO
HRSoftware
  • recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)

    Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is when an employer turns the responsibility of finding potential job candidates over to a ...

  • human resources (HR) generalist

    A human resources generalist is an HR professional who handles the daily responsibilities of talent management, employee ...

  • employee lifecycle

    The employee lifecycle is a human resources model that identifies the different stages a worker advances through in an ...

Customer Experience
  • Adobe Experience Platform

    Adobe Experience Platform is a suite of customer experience management (CXM) solutions from Adobe.

  • virtual assistant (AI assistant)

    A virtual assistant, also called an AI assistant or digital assistant, is an application program that understands natural ...

  • inbound marketing

    Inbound marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting customers, or leads, via company-created internet content, thereby ...

Close