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#53843 01/28/02 05:38 PM
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to say wallet you must use a high pitched voice.

huh??


#53844 01/28/02 06:35 PM
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milum - I'm with JazzO on this one. (we are close to the same longitude).

The 'aw' and the 'eh' in wallet sound a slight bit more grave' together, especially given how acute I've heard *members of the 'upper states' pronounce 'bill'.


#53845 01/29/02 11:47 AM
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Dear Musick, JazzO, The rest of the world, etc...

Must I continually correct myself? I meant A figurative high pitched voice not a real high pitched voice.
I was going to say "...the whimpy nasal sound of the french..." but I didn't want to insult a whole nation.

Must I be scrutinized by every Tom, Dick, and Jazzo?

Milum.


#53846 01/29/02 12:00 PM
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which leads to another oddity as the only 'transom' I had ever heard of before referred to the back of a boat.


#53847 01/29/02 12:29 PM
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but a transom means merely a cross-beam, and from thence gets taken to apply to many individual features by association (boat transom, transom window, etc)

ps - I woke eh-nigma by mistake, and she likes 'transpacific' for transom


#53848 01/29/02 12:38 PM
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but a transom means merely a cross-beam, and from thence gets taken to apply to many individual features
by association (boat transom, transom window, etc)


I worked in architecture, in a former life, and a transome (yes, there was an 'e' on the end for some reason) was the horizontal section of wood which bisected a window's sash. The vertical equivalent is a mullion. I've never heard of a transom window but I can guess that one above a door is so called for the divide between the window and door frames.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd rather NOT look it up.


#53849 01/29/02 02:55 PM
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'round here we sometimes refer to a "gentleman of the road" as a Paraffin lamp ( tramp ) or just plain paraffin for short.

the Duncster


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#53850 01/29/02 02:58 PM
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So what *is a fanlight?


#53851 01/29/02 03:02 PM
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Forgive my pasting from my ten buck CD dictionary:
ran[som 7tran4s!m8
n.
5LME traunsom, prob. altered < L transtrum, crossbeam, lit., that which is across < trans: see TRANS36
1 a crosspiece in a structure; specif., a) a lintel b) a horizontal crossbar across the top or middle of a window or the top of a door
>2 a small window or shutterlike panel directly over a door or window, usually hinged to the TRANSOM (sense 1b)
3 any crosspiece; specif., a) the horizontal beam of a gallows or cross b) any of the transverse beams attached to the sternpost of a wooden ship c) the transverse, aftermost part of a boat with a square stern
over the transom by unsolicited submission, as to a publisher: said of a manuscript, etc.

I did it mostly because I got a laugh out of the last phrase, about submitting a manuscript by throwing it through the transom window of the editor's locked door.



#53852 01/29/02 03:09 PM
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tran·som (trăn'səm)
n.

1a. A horizontal crosspiece over a door or between a door and a window above it.
b. A small hinged window above a door or another window.
2. A horizontal dividing bar of wood or stone in a window.
3.A lintel.
4. Nautical.
a. Any of several transverse beams affixed to the sternpost of a wooden ship and forming part of the stern.
b. The aftermost transverse structural member in a steel ship, including the floor, frame, and beam assembly at the sternpost.
c. The stern of a square-sterned boat when it is a structural member.
5. The horizontal beam on a cross or gallows.

[Middle English traunsom, probably alteration of Latin trānstrum, cross-beam, from trāns, across. See trans–.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


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