[WikiEN-l] "Well known"

[Charles Matthews]

Eugene van der Pijll wrote:
> Charles Matthews schreef:
>   
>> Sadly Google believes there are 11,000 instances for 
>> "most well known" on enWP, and I'd prefer none to be in article space.
>>     
>
> Yes... I guess there must be a few style guides that allow
> that phrase, but most well known style guides agree with you.
>
>   
Touché. I should of course have been more specific. The adjective 
"well-known" has, IMO, the comparative "better-known" and superlative 
"best-known". So, John F. Kennedy was the better-known brother of Ted 
Kennedy, not "the more well known brother", and the best known of the 
children of Joe Kennedy. The hyphens actually are discussed in style guides.

Interesting, given the number of possible cases, to challenge bot 
programmers to automate this one. Examples:

 From [[Shinto]]: "Of the many and diverse Shinto shrines in existence, 
some are more well known:" - not so sure
 From [[chart]]: "Some of the more well known named charts are:" - 
changed to "better-known"
 From [[Ayad Allawi]]: "Allawi established links and worked with the 
[[CIA]] in 1992 as a counterpoint to the more well-known CIA asset 
[[Ahmed Chalabi]]" - changed to "better-known"
 From [[gunfighter]]: "This respect for one another is why most famous 
gunfights were rarely two or more well-known gunmen matched up against 
one another" - this is correct
 From [[György Ligeti]]: "In more recent years, his three books of 
Études for piano have become more well-known" - changed to "better known"
 From [[Instant messaging]]: "The more well-known of these include the 
[[Sarbanes-Oxley Act]], [[HIPAA]], and SEC 17a-3" - changed to 
"better-known"
 From [[Gibson Guitar Corporation]]: "Pete Townshend of The Who, Angus 
Young of AC/DC, Frank Zappa of Mothers of Invention, Adrian Smith of 
Iron Maiden and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath are some of the more 
well-known SG players" - changed to "better-known"

In general, pursuing grammar points can lead you to articles with other 
issues, which is one reason I find it interesting ... but here that 
doesn't seem to apply so obviously.

Charles