monthslong

I wondered if alot had gained any kind of respectability in the dictionary world so I checked the Oxford English Dictionary. There it was! 

My discovery turned out to be a variant spelling of allot that was around in the 1400s.  Macquarie Dictionary mentions alot as nonstandard.

There are a few items like this where a couple of words are melded together because they operate as a unit.  Bear in mind that anyhow used to be any how until the 1800s and can still be split apart as in any old how.  Words that function as units can combine or work independently in different contexts.

It seems that moreso is becoming a unit, as is upto. In the latter case in expressions such as upto twenty people can come the combined form works better than it would in I’m going upto Brisbane.  There is a distinction emerging.

But a marked increase in frequency is evident in forms combined with -long. There is plenty of evidence for dayslong emerging over the last couple of decades.  More recent arrivals are weeks-long, monthslong and yearslong which have all skyrocketed over the last decade.  I came across monthslong in the New York Times which made me wonder if it had been accepted in their style guide (and similar style guides) and so suddenly increased in frequency.

Just as alright suddenly became an acceptable alternative to all right, we may find that we will wake up one day and monthslong won’t raise an eyebrow.