|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Prescriptivist or not, MW lists both mantle and mantel. What are you prescriptivists gonna do? Dismantle MW?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
you'd be hard pressed to find a modern dictionary that's prescriptivist--although the AHD usage notes are prescriptivist in nature.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
just for the record
"That was the week that was" (TV show)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Thank you, Missus Anna.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
SWTWTWTWW = So that's what TWTW was
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
AHD3 has separate entries for mantel, the fireplace adjunct and mantle, the covering of whatever sort. Mantel is derived from manteltree which is derived from mantle + tre, beam. As if that weren't enough, we note from Dr Bill's post above, that an older spelling of mantle was, in OE, mentel and, in OF, mantel, both from Latin mantellum.
I have a slip of paper in my Junk Drawer Memory® with an almost legible scribble on it that seems to say something about a bird called a nickle, but I can't find anything a-googling.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
nickle <zoology> The European woodpecker, or yaffle.
Synonym: nicker pecker.
Source: Websters Dictionary
Now this was an interesting quick search, Faldage. I entered 'nickle' into Onelook.com's search engine. There were about ten or so dictionaries listed. I chose the medical dictionary shown. The medical dictionary, as quoted above, referenced Webster. Ya' gotta love yaffle, but ya' 'specially gotta love, bein' the man you are, nicker pecker!!
I ask you: Was this a matter of coincidence--or destiny? You've finally found your kindred spirit, Close Brother, among the avians.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Ya know? I never think of looking in Onelook. Thanks for the lesson, Dub' Dub.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Both names "nickel" and "cobalt" came from German words for evil spirits, because the ores that contained them were a nuisance. The early miners had no use for the ores as they did not know that valuable metals could be gotten from them, and many years would go by before that became p;ossible.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
I notice the USn's all said mantle/mantel. I would always use mantlepiece.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,421
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
805
guests, and
3
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|