The "de" prefix and hyphen use

[Helix]

I’m curious about rules concerning hyphen use and the “de” prefix.

Here’s an example. In some industries we superheat steam and then desuperheat it where it’s ultimately used. There’s a listing for superheat in dictionary.com but no entry for desuperheat.

So is it desuperheat or de-superheat?

Is there a general rule to follow?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

From the Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition (not the latest)

The word-forming prefixes listed below [includes ante-, bi-, mid-, re-, and sub-, although not de- specifically] generate compounds that are nearly always closed [i.e., do not use hyphens], whether they are nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.

They list a few exceptions, none of which would apply to your case. However, they go on to say:

In addition to familiarity, appearance also influences the retention of hyphens, and it is never wrong to keep a hyphen so as to avoid misleading or puzzling forms (e.g., non-native, anti-intellectual.)

So, generally, you don’t need to use a hyphen, but if you think it would help avoid confusion don’t hesitate to use one.

[Excalibre]

I have no cites, but what I’ve seen most often in print is that the hyphen seems to be used whenever the prefixed form wouldn’t be a reasonably familiar word. So you can debone fish, because that’s a word most people will have seen in print before. If you’re making up a new word, though, hyphenate it so that it’s more obvious to your reader, especially if it could be confused with another word.

[panache45]

@Helix

So is it desuperheat or de-superheat?

Cool.