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Let's imagine we have an organization named EFSMA-EE and another called EFSMA Telecom (EFSMA is an acronym).

If I want to compose these with another word (e.g. "time" - as in "full-time"), what should I do?

Just add the hyphen?

EFSMA-EE-time and EFSMA Telecom-time?

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  • I would refer to this answer to another question which enumarates guideline to create compounds.
    – Eldroß
    Commented Feb 23, 2011 at 10:46
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    @Eldros: Nothing is told about acronyms.
    – John Assymptoth
    Commented Feb 23, 2011 at 10:54

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It is usually better to rephrase such constructions. However, if you cannot do this, you can use an en dash instead. Quoting from The Chicago Manual of Style:

The en dash is used in place of a hyphen in a compound adjective when one of its elements is an open compound or when two or more of its elements are open compounds or hyphenated compounds (e.g., a quasi-public–quasi-judicial body, the post–World War II years).

You can write the phrase in your question as

EFSMA-EE–time and EFSMA Telecom–time

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  • Per Chicago, I believe the convention is to use the en dash first, hyphen second. EFSMA[en dash]EE-time, etc.
    – The Raven
    Commented Feb 23, 2011 at 15:49
  • @The Raven: My interpretation is that the already-hyphenated compound (EFSMA[hyphen]EE) stays hyphenated, and you use the en dash to add the third word, either before or after the term (to do which you would normally use a hyphen). For instance, in quasi-public–quasi-judicial, quasi-public and quasi-judicial are both already hyphenated, and the en dash is used to join the two hyphenated terms. If we were saying pre–EFSMA-EE, the en dash would, as you say, be used first. But if we say, EFSMA-EE–time, EFSMA-EE stays hyphenated, and the en dash is used after.
    – Tragicomic
    Commented Feb 23, 2011 at 16:06

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