Should a two-word noun that modifies be hyphenated?

Question

I came across the sentence "He is Fibonacci spiral attractive," and my first thought was that "Fibonacci spiral" should be hyphenated. I consulted my sister, and she thought it should be "Fibonacci spiral-attractive." Now I'm considering that I'm wrong about it needing any hyphen at all.

I've been scouring the internet for answers, but I don't really know the technical terms, so I haven't been very successful.

Welcome to EL&U. Does this related question help? https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2977/is-it-correct-to-hyphenate-with-compound-premodifiers-if-so-where-is-the-hyphe — livresque, Jan 02 '21 at 03:39
Sort of. The question is pretty much exactly what I'm asking, but people seem divided on the answer there, and I feel like some of the suggestions in the top answer are completely wrong and inconsistent. Thank you for the link! — K Grey, Jan 02 '21 at 04:19
Welcome indeed! Could you edit your question (a) to explain why the earlier question doesn't help [be specific] and (b) to explain what your three-word phrase actually means, as adding a hyphen in the wrong place could change its meaning. — Andrew Leach, Jan 02 '21 at 10:15
Does this answer your question? Is it correct to hyphenate with compound premodifiers? If so, where is the hyphen placed? — jimm101, Jan 06 '21 at 03:56

Edwin Ashworth · Answer 1 · 2021-01-02T17:04:11.543

There is a probable duplicate, but I've never seen this (doubtless nonce) compound secondary-modifier (adjective modifier, traditionally adverb) before.

Fibonacci∞spiral∞attractive.

Where if anywhere does one hyphenate?

Looking for similar strings that are idiomatic, we find

drop-dead gorgeous and arguably
lead-pipe cinch but
stone cold sober as well as stone-cold sober.

The latter is probably so idiomatic that a hyphen is felt to be unnecessary clutter. Practice may also vary with position of modifier (prenominal or predicative).

With the nonce candidate here, there is obviously a possibility of confusion, one factor being the unusual reference (a Fibonacci spiral). (Actually, the golden spiral looks more perfect ... I am assuming that the meaning here is supposed to be very, very rather than rugged, angular). To show that this is a cohesive unit (rather than spiral attractive), the gluing effect of a hyphen is best employed. Also, scare-italics for a nonce usage. And a clue to the intended meaning.

He's Fibonacci-spiral attractive.

Should a two-word noun that modifies be hyphenated?

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