I encountered this phrase in a newspaper story about a mid-size town (population 45,000) that has only one high school. The phrase I've embedded above was used several times in the text and is quite comprehensible, but seems to me maddingly awkward. As I scan the text, my mind seems to linger over the meaning of "one-high" that gets clalrified immeditely, but leaves an unpleasant aftertaste for an English major.
My first thought was that it should have been "one-highschool town", but of course high school is not conventionally used as one word. A search reveals usages like that (or as HighSchool), but all the grammar guides emphasize that the term should only be written as two words.
The headline and text could have been revised to "a town with one high school," of course, but as written it is reminiscent of "one-horse town" or "one-trick pony" and has a certain charm. I've tried to think of other awkwardness where a pair of words is thought of as one word, but then fail as such when modified.
I'm too busy to think this morning. Someone think for me...
You are probably already familiar with this classic: https://xkcd.com/37/
ReplyDeleteWe live in a town 1/2 of 10x smaller than the one above and have one high school and one Hi-School Pharmacy. That's as deep as I'll get on a holiday following a ND loss.
ReplyDeleteThis a math-related construction that makes my brain itch, and I see it so much. A multiplier like 10x implies something is bigger, so "10x smaller" is just so awkward. "One tenth the size" (or in this case, one-twentieth, or even "5% the size") gets the point across so much more clearly.
DeleteI share this as a favorite pet peeve. Furthermore, if your mortgage drops from 5% to 4%, it drops one percentage point and not “one percent” (it dropped 20% of the 5% rate, thank you very much).
DeleteIf it was me I would've hemmed and hawed about it (hemmed-and-hawed? LOL) but I think I'd go with one-high-school town. You're specifying what kind of town it is, one high school, and it's not about what kind of school town it is. Agree that it's awkward all around though.
ReplyDeleteStan, this one got me. I did a little digging. I found "formal writing" examples would ad a hyphen to "high school." As in "A high-school student." American English tends to be less strict, perhaps. And style guides differ. So one idea I found was that it could be, "A one–high-school town." En-dash between one and high and a hyphen between ...
ReplyDeletehttps://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/235511/high-school-student-vs-high-school-student
I think most editors would steer toward your recommendation.
I liked this: "Perhaps no one is worried that "high school student" means a school student who is high."
"A one-highschool town" would do.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why I was never an English major and don't see what your dilemma is! Thanks for the laugh today. Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend
ReplyDelete"One-school town" seems appropriate. As a subject heading, that gets the point across.
ReplyDeleteFor a brief period when I was younger, I lived in a ons highschool *county*.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny to me that in discussion like this people focus more on the grammar rules, than the clarity of the text.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is a funny language. The basic grammar of English is quite simple - very little conjugation, no cases. Certainly compared to Roman and Germanic languages. However, there is some over-complicated deep-cut grammar around that fetishists love to argue over.
In contrast, Dutch has a more complex grammar than English, while at the same time being much more loose in the application of all that grammar. Grammatical correctness always loses from clarity.
Meanwhile, there is an official institute that determines what is Dutch and what is not, while there is no such institution for English.
https://ivdnt.org/english-pages/
I attended a 3-year Senior High School, so mine would be a one-senior high school town even though there were about 250 seniors n my graduating class. Sorry. I guess that does not make you feel better. It was also a two-junior high school town. I am not helping…..
ReplyDeleteI'd go with "single high school town" and leave it at that.
ReplyDelete