A coworker and I have been trying to figure out Patrick O'Brian's use of '-' in his Aubrey–Maturin series. All the "regular" obscenities are used, as far as we can tell, at some point in the novels. So either this is an obsure English word, or he decided to let the reader fill in the -. We can't find even a trend in the use. The first use or two was by a female character, but then it started being used by both male and female characters both alone, in same gender, and mixed gender company.

Unfortunately, if there is a particular word that we missed, I doubt it can be repeated here.

Can you give us a sentence from the book in which it's used?

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From Post Captain:
Now, you can fit a few words into it, but then when it's used later, they don't fit. Then in another book, or maybe Post Captain still, they're blurring together, somebody, Maturin I believe, says something like "that - - thing", which really messes up figuring this out.

Which I'm missing POB still aint I?

This topic came and went a few times on the POB list. I think this person's response is about as good an explination as you are likely to ever find.

With the risk of getting Gillianren down on my back again, this is the typographical way of indicating an ellipsis(grammatical) when a single word is removed, it's mainly used in England.

Technically it shouldn’t be a hyphen “-”, but where possible, the dash should be either an em-dash “—” or one even wider “―”.

It doesn’t stand for any specific word, but for any word that isn’t written in full, in pretty much the same way the forum software uses **** for nasty words.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Not true. In one of the early books (I forget which one, and I'm not at home so I can't check), the crew make up a song about Admiral Harte, including liberal use of "-".

I don't see a pattern, except that "-" is always used in the first two or three books, but only intermittently thereafter.

No shooting down here. See also The Truth, by Terry Pratchett. (Of course, there, it turns out the character just isn't saying anything at all, but still, you're lead to assume for maybe a couple of hundred pages that he is.)

Then again, by the description, the guy may or may not have a specific word in mind, given the erratic nature of its use, and having a specific word in mind is definitely required. Otherwise, you don't have anything to elide.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Which is what I've come to believe too.

Which threw me off too as he uses the hyphen (I double checked and it's not an em-dash). I though maybe it was a Brittish way of doing an ellipsis as he also uses the hyphen when a character trails off mid-sentence.

The biggest catch is listening to the audio version, which I'm doing during my commute. The narrator (Simon Vance, published by Blackstone audio, shameless plug there) does a great job with unique voices for the characters. When he hits one of the ellipses he seamlessly transitions to his narratitive voice, says, "blank," and shifts back the character's voice. The first time I heard it, it threw me off the pace of the narration for a few beats until I remembered the text. Even so, it occasionally catches me by surprise.

Well, the long dash can be used for the multiword ellipsis as well, but it's a lot less common.

That it's a hyphen could be due to bad typography by the publisher, or it could be his specification.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

A dash may be used to cut off a sentence--and should, if it's dialogue and the sentence is supposed to be ended suddenly instead of trailed off. If the person is interrupted, the dash is appropriate. If they sort of trail off, the ellipsis is your friend.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

It would seem that O'Brian is a bit of a prude. Not only does he write about the 19th century, but he almost seems to live there as well. His style is very much in keeping with the time period about which he writes.

Now, don't get me wrong; I love his books and his literary style. In fact, I'm currently on my third run through the Aubrey/Maturin series - reading "Treason's Harbor" (#9) currently. Just watched "Master and Commander" for the umpteenth time last night!

Does anyone else find themselves speaking in an archaic manner after reading historical novels like this? Just the other day, I found myself saying, "It doesn't signify". And "Never in life" has become one of my favorite, new expressions!

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Two things we know are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And we're not sure about the universe.

Try listening for an hour or so a day.

Just to annoy you.....

Patrick O'Brian the master wordsmith, eh? Not in my book. His storylines are hackneyed and his dialogue dire. A rip-off of the Hornblower novels, where the characters speak to each other like people, not characters in a Mills & Boon.

That quote by Cpt. Kidd just makes me reach for the blue pencil. The 'master wordsmith' needed to read the real master, Hemingway, who would have edited that passage something like this:

'Get over you -,' said the girl. Jack had never heard a girl say - before, and he turned to look at her with interest. She was busy coping with the mare's excitement, but after a moment she caught his eye and frowned. He looked away, smiling, for she was the prettiest thing, sitting her horse with the grace of a midshipman at the tiller in a lively sea.

More pithy, more direct, wouldn't you say? And that's without Papa's rewrite to avoid the two adjectives I left in.

John

Well, I loathe Hemingway, and I'd like to point out that there should be a comma after the second word. I find Hemingway impenetrable and not worth the bother of trying (though I suppose he's better than Faulkner). Literature is a matter of personal taste. And it strikes me that what you're referring to having left in just may be the adverbial phrase "with interest." Besides, what's wrong with adjectives? Or adverbs, come to that? No, you shouldn't rely on them to do all your work of description for you, but they're a valid pair of parts of speech.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Since it's a matter of taste, you're certainly entitled to your own opinion. I agree with Gillianren on this one though; Hemingway ain't all that.

And I strongly disagree with the characterization of POB as a ripoff of Hornblower and Forester. Having read both series multiple times, I'm actually amazed - amazed, I say - that O'Brian never seems to repeat a theme or storline from Hornblower. I love them both. (I do hope that A&E does some more Hornblower movies!)

Anyway, for my money, the master wordsmith is H.D. Thoreau. His style and way with words has me in awe. Every line is quotable. (I think I'll go back to Gillianren's "Project Doom" and add him to my list!)

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Two things we know are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And we're not sure about the universe.

Well, if you believe Kurt Vonnegut, the '-' word has to be 'jism'.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Yes it's more direct, but then the last part is what Jack was thinking so there's room for some arguement on how it should have been written versus writing how the character is thinking.

According to somebody in a Wikipedia article

It seems to me that O'Brian doesn't have any particular word in mind when he uses " - ", and that his shift between spelling out the words and using " - " is just a stylistic flourish.
He drops in " - " when the tone is light, as in the example of the girl and the horse, and the scurrilous song sung by the sailors. Under these circumstances he's playing with the literary conventions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for mild comic effect.
But if it's going to interfere with the narrative flow and tension during more serious passages, he just lets his characters swear.

(As for Hemingway ... I'd have to reuse Capote's pithy dismissal of Kerouac, and declare: "That's not writing; that's typing.")

Grant Hutchison