Which is correct in formal British English (or journalese at least)?
I have written material from manufacturers/vendors with all three versions but while these people know a lot about beds (hopefully), they don't necessarily know a great deal about using English – it might be a second or third language for them.
Google is equally vague.
Thanks for any suggestions.
A lot of common compounds evolve, from (e.g.) box spring to box-spring to boxspring. Different newspapers have different styles and I bet would write it differently. I would suggest going to the website of a British paper whose style guide you think would be trustworthy and doing a search.
Times of London is not consistent.
17 per cent of US mattress buyers, according to a recent report, spend $1,000-$2,000 on mattress and box-spring sets.
[One brand of bed] s higher than average with an extra-thick mattress, box spring base and a down feather layer between the mattress and sheets.
I found examples of both box springs+ and +box-springs as well.
The Guardian had the same inconsistency--either two words or a hyphen.
I then tried searching on UK government sites, limiting the search to site:gov.uk. Almost always two words, no hyphen. (mostly advice on bedbug control)
I looked at other UK sites. Boxspring(s), one word, was not as commmon, so you can eliminate that.
-xspr- is an uncomfortable looking string of consonants; even -xs- doesn't quite make sense. It wouldn't surprise me if box-spring hung around longer than most equally common hyphenated compounds.
-xspr- is an uncomfortable looking string of consonants; even -xs- doesn't quite make sense. It wouldn't surprise me if box-spring hung around longer than most equally common hyphenated compounds.
I'd have thought it would work the other way around: that it's words like auto-industry and quasi-experimental that would keep their hyphens for a longer time. With -xs-, it's clear that the "x" ends one syllable and "s" begins the next.
Sure, words where there's a possibility of mispronunciation would keep their hyphen longer. Although cooperate seems to have won out over co-operate (and coöperate, which I am old enough to have seen in the wild).
But xs doesn't occur naturally (so to speak) in English and I think that may work in the hyphen's favor.
Just a comment from a retired editor:
I don't see any inconsistency in that Times of London excerpt.
In the term "box-spring sets," you have a hyphenated adjective mondifying a noun, sets. In the term "box spring base," you have a three-word noun, if I may call it that. To me, "box-spring base" would have meant a base on which to set a box spring.