Benchmark vs. Bench Mark

http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/one_word_or_two.php

I'm going to vote for bench mark to be two words.

Tastes great!
Less Filling!
Tastes great!
Less Filling!

It's beer. Drink it or don't.
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The end user either knows what one is or they don't. If they don't, it doesn't matter how you spell it. If they do, they will understand either way. The odds they pull out the nearest tome version of the Oxford English Dictionary to start a debate with you are minimal.

I knew you would be the first to reply.

Holy Cow, post: 375091, member: 50 wrote:
The odds they pull out the nearest tome version of the Oxford English Dictionary to start a debate with you are minimal.

Or you could be talking to someone that studied 6th century history, in that case, you are in trouble.

James

Reply is what West Texas surveyors do to repair their homes after a mighty wind storm. They find the broken sheets of plywood, glue them back together and, thus, reply their homes.

As I understand it, the term "bench mark" derives from the practice of chiseling an impression into stone that an angle iron could be set in to form a "bench" for the level rod. The "bench mark" was typically an arrow chiseled in the stone to mark the position. Like a lot of common modern vernacular, "benchmark" has become a generic term denoting just about any survey control point.

I use the NGS spelling since they are an authority on the subject

this is a bench mark:

this is a bench marked:

Lee D, post: 375098, member: 7971 wrote: As I understand it, the term "bench mark" derives from the practice of chiseling an impression into stone that an angle iron could be set in to form a "bench" for the level rod. The "bench mark" was typically an arrow chiseled in the stone to mark the position. Like a lot of common modern vernacular, "benchmark" has become a generic term denoting just about any survey control point.

I never thought of it as anything other than a vertical control mark. Of course there are times where we put horizontal as well as vertical data on a bench mark, so I could buy that it may have morphed into nearly any type of control. I always envisioned that the term "Bench Mark" being a survey-type mark first, and later the "benchmark" derived from that, as a term that was a marker for other standards.

I tied into a Bench Mark in the pump Island of a Country Store one day. The Lady behind the counter thought I was some kind of pervert when I asked her if people came by an tied into her BM very often. It is much better to say the whole word and not abbreviate in these circumstances.