hyphen use

Hello there. First of all, this website has helped me so thank you.


I want to know if "kid me" needs a hyphen or not. I do not plan to use it as in "kidding me." I plan to use it to refer to my past self. Does it need a hyphen?

Answer:

You're essentially inventing a term here to refer to an aspect of yourself -- perhaps you at a younger age, yes? This is rather like what you do when you coin a term or invent a name for something.

In such a situation, you are free to design the term in a way that makes sense. I would think that hyphenating would let the reader know that "kid-me" should be read as a one-word name rather than as two separate words.

If this aspect of yourself behaves more like a separate character, you might consider capitalizing the first letter as well.

Best of luck.

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