Talk:lifesaving

surf lifesaving? (Australian English).

As a dictionary entry, it seems "sum of its parts", which is to say that a not-too-skilled speaker of English would surmise that it is lifesaving that takes place in the surf, that is at a beach, probably an ocean beach, assuming that they knew what "surf" and "lifesaving" meant as individual words. If it has a commonly used, but more specific meaning, that meaning might be worth an entry. Do you know if it has a more specific meaning? The next question would be: Are there citations from "durably archived media" that show that meaning? Google news includes some Australian newspapers. Google books includes books that might have Australian English usages like that. DCDuring TALK 20:18, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Also should this have a hyphen? "life-saving research"--221.133.201.194 01:20, 24 September 2008 (UTC) (ZayZayEM)

Either "lifesaving", the noun, can be used as an adjective, just like almost every noun. "life-saving" is a compound that, like "surf lifesaving" doesn't seem to have a meaning beyond its parts. We might list it as an alternative spelling, but might or might not include it as an entry. DCDuring TALK 20:18, 27 September 2008 (UTC)