And even then, there's no guarantee your dictionary will agree with your editor's, especially when it comes to things like hyphenation. There are genuine grey areas. If an editor rejects your manuscript because you've followed Chambers dictionary instead of the Oxford one [1] then he was probably not an editor you would have wanted to work with. If in doubt, go for clarity and consistency. [1] Maybe the US equivalent would have been following Funk & Wagnalls instead of Merriam-Webster; I don't know a more up-to-date version.
One thing that I'd like to clarify and/or ask for clarification on: the word "senor" -- by this, I assume you mean the Spanish word "señor"? I'm a native Spanish speaker (and a native English speaker as well, I know, weird), and "senor" just looks completely wrong to me. I don't know if that's the case in standard English, or if my impression of the word is tainted by my Spanish, but I would think that anytime it's used in English, it should still be spelled properly, or at least approximated as "senior" (which also looks ridiculously silly to me when used for "señor"). My gut feeling says that if you have a Hispanophone speaking, it would look something like this: would either of the following two also be acceptable or preferred in English language writing? (this one strikes me as a non-Hispanophone speaking, and pronouncing the words in an American (or whatever country) accent) (this one just strikes me as plain wrong) Does anyone who knows more about the proper integration of languages care to comment on this? I'm afraid I'm at a loss here, as I think my Spanish-speaking side is sneaking in here and skewing my judgment. (Edit: yay 200 posts!)
Even as somebody who doesn't speak Spanish, "Senor Smith" jars with me; I'd always use "Señor Smith" (although this forum's spelling checker disagrees: it objects to "Señor" but not to "Senor").
I've included the tilde. I couldn't find out how to type it for my post, so I left it out. I didn't italicize it, though, because it was in a person's title.
And that is probably the main reason English speakers would leave it out! My rationale for italicizing was that "Smith" didn't sound like a Spanish name, so it's probably not part of Mr Smith's usual title. But maybe I'm over-analyzing.
spelling the spanish title 'senor' as the word 'senior' which has no relevance to a person's manner of address, would be nonsensical... when using it as a substitute for 'mr.' it should be spelled correctly and include the tilde, if at all possible... however, in the english-speaking world, 'senor/senora/senorita' are often seen without the accent mark...
When to hyphenate? Clarity is everything. So insert a hyphen solely when it is essential to make the meaning clear. For example, a 'red-skinned boy, too long out in the sun' implies the poor infant is merely sunburnt. A 'red skinned boy' connotes a fate that's far more terrible. The spelling correction utility in Word annoys me: it tries to hyphenate everything it doesn't understand. (I just pray it never meets my wife... )
