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OP This may be a YART, but I got too many hits on the word "alarm" to figure that out. My Turkish friend and I were talking the other day about smoke detectors...
Why does a fire alarm "go off", meaning that it begins to sing? And when it stops singing, what do you use to indicate that? It doesn't "go off"; I would probably say "It stopped". Does this have something to do with the way alarms originally worked? We also say "I set off the fire alarm". (Or the burglar alarm.) Why, oh why?
Are there other situations where a "backward" verb is used like this?
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Alarms
Bean 04/30/01 11:03 AM ![]()
Re: Alarms
wwh 04/30/01 12:58 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
Geoff 04/30/01 01:07 PM ![]()
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Jackie 04/30/01 01:22 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
Bean 04/30/01 02:29 PM ![]()
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Anonymous 04/30/01 02:37 PM ![]()
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rodward 04/30/01 03:08 PM ![]()
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of troy 04/30/01 03:18 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
rodward 04/30/01 03:37 PM ![]()
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Hyla 04/30/01 03:19 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
rodward 04/30/01 03:30 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
wwh 04/30/01 07:38 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
wow 05/01/01 07:16 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
Anonymous 05/01/01 07:44 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
wow 05/01/01 08:13 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Sparteye 05/02/01 02:25 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Bobyoungbalt 05/02/01 03:56 PM ![]()
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Faldage 05/02/01 04:17 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Bingley 05/03/01 06:49 AM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Flatlander 05/03/01 05:19 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Bingley 05/07/01 12:09 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
of troy 05/07/01 02:32 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
wwh 05/07/01 03:49 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Max Quordlepleen 05/07/01 07:02 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
of troy 05/07/01 07:29 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Max Quordlepleen 05/07/01 11:58 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
rodward 05/08/01 08:57 AM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Bingley 05/08/01 10:29 AM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Max Quordlepleen 05/08/01 07:54 PM ![]()
Re: Cop talk
Capital Kiwi 05/09/01 09:32 AM ![]()
Re: Alarms
AnnaStrophic 05/03/01 09:16 PM ![]()
Burgling
Bean 04/30/01 05:26 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
wwh 04/30/01 03:34 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
Anonymous 04/30/01 03:38 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
Geoff 05/08/01 12:16 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
wsieber 05/07/01 02:14 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
Bean 05/07/01 05:42 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms : Off and On
wow 04/30/01 01:36 PM ![]()
Re: Alarms
belMarduk 04/30/01 07:10 PM
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