Google dictionary has this information about the origin of ex In writing, though, the use of former doesn't seem so rare Is short for exempli gratia, and is in common use to introduce an example within a sentence Submit a sample of academic writing, e.g., a dissertation chapter However, some authors use ex. In informal english, especially us english, it is acceptable to say
I saw your ex with this hot dude yesterday Or, she is still in touch with all of her exes. Ex by itself (no hyphen) doesn't seem right either Can each part be hyphenated, or the hyphen dropped altogether Is there another way to make this more clear while still keeping the ex prefix? In legal language i have come across the term ex post facto
Post facto also means after the fact, so it should be sufficient This is commonly used in Whichever rule you choose and stick to, you'll be swimming against the linguistic tide with much of your text!
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