Attn: Grammar dorks

"That word is misspelled," the General Manager said last night once we were proofing pages for this week's edition.

He was pointing to the plural of drive-thru in a headline on the front page which, admittedly, is an awkward word (it no longer appears in the headline). This led to a search for any rules governing the word, either in English or AP Style (which are not always the same thing).

The AP Stylebook was of little help. County documents refer to a "drive-thru," though the grammar dork in me really wants to write "drive-through."

Then there's the plural — "drive-thrus" is not a gem of a word, especially in a banner headline. A survey of regional media showed that most erred on "drive-thru," though the plural rarely surfaces.

In the end, it was "drive-thru," and I avoided using the plural like the Plague. My question is, what is the definitive spelling of this word? It will surface again, but the jury is out on which word we should use or whether the commonly-used word is actually a word.

If the above post was not clear, I have had a few late nights in a row, and these are the things I try to figure out. I welcome your thoughts.

The weekly look-ahead is forthcoming.