• NielsBohron@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    See, I’m a chemist, but I also believe in the power and importance of organized labor, so I still read that as unionized.

    Plus, I think most chemists would say “neutral” or use protonated/deprotonated rather than un-ionized

    • Hobo@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Also un-ionized as a hyphen (which you used when writing it) and unionized doesn’t. Which is probably why you, and most chemists, would read it as unionized as well.

      • NielsBohron@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        It does get legitimately used both ways. In a chemistry textbook, seeing it written as “unionized” is pretty common, and wiktionary says that the hyphenated form is predominantly used in contexts where it might be confused with “having a union” (which matches with my experience).

        However, I still assert that it’s just not a word chemists use that much as there are other, less ambiguous synonyms available.