Seatbelt, Seatback, Gearbox or Seat belt, Seat back, Gear box?

[Learning TechEng]

I'm trying to find out if the following are one word or two. Could somenone please help me with this? Google is not very helpful in these instances..(or I'm just not proficient enough in how to search)

Seat Belt or Seatbelt
Seat Back or Seatback
Gear Box or Gearbox

Thanx.

 

[Route21]

Welcome to the forum.
Tried looking them up in a dictionary?
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary

Regards
R21

 

[Learning TechEng]

Hi!

Thank you.

Yes I have tried, but it did not make it much clearer to me since all of the above examples are there, as one word and as two.
Are these words correct regardless if they are one word or two?

 

[SoothingDave]

Well, my spelling corrector in my browser only likes "gearbox" as one word. I could probably accept "seatbelt" as one word, since it is a common combination. "Seat back" is not commonly used together, outside of airplane safety lectures.

 

[Learning TechEng]

Thanks SoothingDave.

Mine accepts both "gear box" and "gearbox" which makes it a bit confusing. But I think I will go with one word as you say.
Seat belt/Seatbelt and Seat back/Seatback... Well I agree with you, but I cannot find anything really tangible to confirm which one is correct.
But as a Swede it might be that I'm missing something due to language difficulties.

 

[Rover_KE]

When a dictionary accepts both forms you can use either, but be consistent - don't write gearbox in one sentence and gear box in the next.

Rover

 

[SoothingDave]

What you are missing is the evolution of language. Now, I work in an industry that uses gearboxes, so the word is familiar to me. Someone less familiar might hae advised that "gear box" is two words.

And that's what it is really all about. Familiarity Over time, common pairs of words tend to evolve into a single word. Sometimes there is an interim step where they are hyphenated.

What was once "base ball," is now "baseball."

"To-day," "to-night" and "to-morrow" used to be hyphenated

 

[Learning TechEng]

Thanks all

I guess I have to decide then what to use and just stick with it.
This is a great site for one that is a Technical English novice, like me.