A Saumur Champigny worthy of mention

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OK, time for pedantry again. N dashes are only used for connections between two distanced things, for instance, 1830-1835. Em dashes are for interruptions in sentences, among some other things. The mark at issue here is a hyphen. And, of course, all these distinctions are really only printer's distinctions and I very much doubt many of us notice them when we see them since the form of dash being used will be obvious from context, and, if it weren't, the slight typographical variations wouldn't be immediately visible to most of us.
 
I think the reference was to Mike Dashe, but personally (as opposed to impersonally), I am ultra sensitive to the length difference between dashes and hyphens.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
I think the reference was to Mike Dashe, but personally (as opposed to impersonally), I am ultra sensitive to the length difference between dashes and hyphens.
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Yes, your joke was. I doubt Keith's claim was, though.
 
I was not joking. Same principle as below from the Chicago Manual of Style, except with a suffix rather than prefix:

"En dashes are also used to connect a prefix to a proper open compound: for example, preWorld War II. In that example, “pre” is connected to the open compound “World War II” and therefore has to do a little extra work (to bridge the space between the two words it modifies—space that cannot be besmirched by hyphens because “World War II” is a proper noun). Now, that is a rather fussy use of the en dash that many people ignore, preferring the hyphen."

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www.chicagomanualofstyle.org
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I was not joking. Same principle as below from the Chicago Manual of Style, except with a suffix rather than prefix:

"En dashes are also used to connect a prefix to a proper open compound: for example, preWorld War II. In that example, “pre” is connected to the open compound “World War II” and therefore has to do a little extra work (to bridge the space between the two words it modifies—space that cannot be besmirched by hyphens because “World War II” is a proper noun). Now, that is a rather fussy use of the en dash that many people ignore, preferring the hyphen."

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www.chicagomanualofstyle.org
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But that rule does not apply. Snakehead is not a prefix to fish, nor does the dash or hyphen appear between Snakehead and fish.
 
It's not based on "snakehead" being a prefix, it's based on "like" being a suffix. "Snakehead fish" is a compound term like "World War II." (There are no hyphens in "World-War-II" either.) So if it's attached to what would be a hyphenated prefix or suffix if the term were *not* compound, you use the n-dash instead of the hyphen as a signal that the prefix or suffix is attached to the entire compound and not only to the immediately contiguous word.
 
1) I am sure I can find some other statement of the rule that mentions both prefixes and suffixes. In any event, the rationale behind the rule applies equally to both prefixes and suffixes -- the n-dash is there "to do a little extra work (to bridge the space between the two words it modifies—space that cannot be besmirched by hyphens)."

2) Of course "like" is a suffix. American Heritage Dictionary (https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=like) and Wiki (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-like) both confirm. In fact the example of "like" as a suffix in the latter just happens to be "snake-like." If "like" is a suffix when attached to "snake" there is no reason it cannot be a suffix when attached to "snakehead fish."
 
You are of course right about it being a suffix. Mea culpa.

If you can find a statement that applies to suffixes, please do so. Manuals of Style are highly arbitrary as anyone who has had to redo something published in one place for publication in another that follows a different manual of style will know. If you can find that statement, I will cede your point. Logic, however, has nothing to do with the case.
 
Here you go:

The en dash also attaches a prefix or suffix to an unhyphenated compound.

post-World War I treaty
New York-based writer
non-sodium chloride solution
sodium chloride-free solution
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www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca

(n-dashes changed to hyphens because Wine Disorder won't display n-dashes!)
 
Not the Chicago Manual of Style, but I'll take it.

The fact that Wine Disorder won't display n-dashes and although there are ways of doing it in, say, Word, they aren't obvious, and no publisher I have ever worked with demands that manuscripts follow such forms, all make me return to one of my original points. This is largely a matter for printers, not for punctuation. Still, you have made your point.
 
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