"mid" without a following hyphen in these words?
The Chicago Manual, 16th edition, says that "mid" is followed by a hyphen only if a capitalized word (mid-Atlantic) or a number (mid-1950s) follows. That said, I believe that all of the following examples would be correct without any hyphens (based on Chicago's ruling), agreed? midsummer, midfall, midautumn, midwinter, midspring, midparagraph, midpurgatory, midsentence, midmorning, midafternoon, midevening.
Solution 1:
Several U.S. style guides recommend a treatment of the prefix mid- that closely resembles the one in Chicago. For example, from The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (2002):
mid- No hyphen unless a capitalized word follows: mid-America, mid-Atlantic, midsummer, midterm
From The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (1999):
mid(-). Except before a proper name or a number, compounds formed with mid are one word: midafternoon, midair, mid-America, mid-Atlantic, midchannel, midcontinent, midday, Mideast, midfield, midland, midlife, midmorning, midnight, midpoint, midocean [out of alphabetical order, I notice], midsection, midship, midsize, midstream, midsummer, Midtown (Manhattan's), midtown, midway, midweek, Midwest, midwife
Also, mid-1960, mid-1960's, mid-'60, mid-60's, mid-ninth century, mid-16th century.
From The St. Martin's Handbook, fifth edition (2003):
57c Using hyphens with prefixes and suffixes
Most words containing prefixes or suffixes are written without hyphens: antiwar, gorillalike. Only in the following cases do you need a hyphen:
WITH CAPITALIZED BASE WORDS [Examples:} pro-Bush, un-American, non-Catholic
WITH FIGURES [Examples:] pre-1960, post-1945
WITH CERTAIN PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES [Examples:] all-state, self-possessed, quasi-legislative, mayor-elect, fifty-odd
Hyphens are also used with ex- and -some when these mean "former" and "approximately," respectively: ex-husband, twenty-some
WITH COMPOUND BASE WORDS [Examples:] pre-high school, pro-civil rights, post-cold war
FOR CLARITY OR EASE OF READING [Examples:] re-cover, anti-inflation, troll-like
And from MLA Style Manual, second edition (1998):
3.4.6 Hyphens
...
h. In general do not use hyphens after prefixes (e.g., anti-, co-, multi-, non-, over-, post-, pre-, re-, semi-, sub-, un-, under-). [Examples omitted.] But sometimes a hyphen is called for after a prefix.
[Example:] post-Victorian (Use a hyphen before a capital letter.)
[Example:] re-cover (The hyphen distinguishes this verb meaning "cover again," from recover, meaning "get back.")
[Example:] anti-icing (Without the hyphen, the doubled vowel would make the term hard to recognize.)
To judge from The Oxford Guide to Style (2003), however, preferences in the UK lean much more toward retaining hyphens with at least some prefixes. That guide has a special subsection on mid-:
5.10.2 Prefixes and combining forms
...
The prefix mid- is now considered to be an adjective in its own right in such combinations as mid shot, mid grey, mid range, and mid nineteenth century, though as a combining form it retains its hyphen in mid-air, mid-engined, mid-Victorian, and other forms.