Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

I prefer both without a hyphen, but MW11 says "standard-bearer".

Daniele Procida:

Both hyphenated.

Yes to the hyphens, especially in the case of "standard-bearer"
because otherwise one might pause to wonder whether bearers come in
standard and nonstandard varieties.

--
Michael West
Expat Yank in Australia

The guiding principle for hyphenating nouns that are not being used as
a compound adjective is to insert one when the compound has a meaning
different from what the simple pairing would suggest, or--more
generally--to avoid confusion or readerly inconvenience.

By that gauge, "flag carrier" would not want a hyphen, while "standard
bearer" would (owing to the possible sense of a bearer that is
standard).  Compare "dancing girl" amd "dancing-girl".

When paired nouns are being used adjectivally, one always wants the
hyphen: "the flag-carrier role".

I would imagine it depends in part whether you are British or
American. But it mainly depends, in my view, on whether the two
couples of nouns are self-sufficient [no hyphens] or whether they are
used in an adjectival way to modify another noun (e.g. in
"flag-carrier duty" [hyphens]).

CW

Thanks for the various answers.

Daniele

"flag-carrier" and "standard-bearer"