Grammatical Question

[OvenSeeksBun]

Hi! I don't know if this is the correct place to post this question. I work at a child care centre, and I have been editing our monthly newsletter since I've started working here. I have always thought "daycare" and "childcare" were one word, and I have looked it up before and been confirmed. But online dictionaries seems to accept "childcare" as well as "child care", and "daycare" as well as "day care". So which is it?? Surely they cannot both be equally acceptable.

[Cavy]

If they're both in the dictionary I would think they are both acceptable.
They are fairly modern phrases, so doesn't have to be a single definite convention (yet).

[OvenSeeksBun]

When I think about it, it seems like they could both be acceptable in different ways. For example, "I am providing day care for four children" or "I work in daycare program". Because "day" describes the care, and "daycare" describes the program, or am I totally crazy?

[1jooj]

At my most recent job, I talked at some length with one of our proofers about this. He's been proofreading for a long time and has watched the evolution of a lot of words just like these. He said they seem to go from two words to hyphenated to an unhyphed single word. If both are in the dictionary, both are acceptable.

Your two uses certainly seem intuitive and comfortable.

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

Originally Posted by OvenSeeksBun

When I think about it, it seems like they could both be acceptable in different ways. For example, "I am providing day care for four children" or "I work in daycare program". Because "day" describes the care, and "daycare" describes the program, or am I totally crazy?