underpunctuate

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ punctuate.

Verb

underpunctuate (third-person singular simple present underpunctuates, present participle underpunctuating, simple past and past participle underpunctuated)

1. To punctuate insufficiently.
   • 1893, John F[ranklin] Genung, “The Sentence”, in Outlines of Rhetoric Embodied in Rules, Illustrative Examples, and a Progressive Course of Prose Composition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., London: Ginn & Company, part II (Organization of Materials), chapter section II (Punctuation of the Sentence), page 191:

     Do not overpunctuate; it is much easier than to underpunctuate. The general tendency nowadays is to make punctuation less copious than formerly.

   • 1925, Henry Seidel Canby, John Baker Opdycke, Good English: Book Two: The Elements of Composition, The Macmillan Company, page 163:

     Do not overpunctuate. But do not underpunctuate. Make your sentence constructions so clear that it will be possible for you to keep punctuation at a minimum.

   • 1973, Terence Tobin, Letters of George Ade, page 12:

     [George] Ade tended to underpunctuate. The punctuation of the letters and the capitalization which was a trademark remain as they appear in the copy texts.

   • 1999, David Omissi, “Editorial Note”, in Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers’ Letters, 1914–18, Palgrave Macmillan, page xxiii:

     The translators tended to underpunctuate (perhaps reflecting their familiarity with the originals). I have therefore repunctuated many of the letters in accordance with accepted modern English usage.

   • 2010, Peter Cochran, “Introduction: The Bisexual Byron”, in Byron and Women [and Men], Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page lxvi:

     For example, much editorial ink has been spilled over the question, why did he [Lord Byron] underpunctuate his poetic manuscripts – or even whether his manuscripts are under-, or just Byronically-, punctuated.

Antonyms

• overpunctuate

Related terms

• underpunctuated
• underpunctuation