[WikiEN-l] "Well known"

[Charles Matthews]

Fred Bauder wrote:
>> For a change, something on English usage. A trawl through some usage
>> books tells me nothing much about "most well known", which I'm convinced
>> is a solecism, and should be "best-known". The hyphenation I think is
>> standard anyway. Sadly Google believes there are 11,000 instances for
>> "most well known" on enWP, and I'd prefer none to be in article space.
>>
>> Charles
>>     
>
> Well, both expressions, both with and without hyphen, seem to be in
> general use. Now that you've mentioned it, I can't recall which of the
> four possibilities I habitually use. Right now "best known" seems best,
> but I wouldn't waste one second changing a most well known into a best
> known.
>   
Ah ... I would. How about "much more well known", versus "better-known", 
because our general style tends to understatement? Anyway I have been 
zapping those. Any such trawl finds other problems to fix.

Charles