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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I just love this word. Ante is of course before, and ultimate here means final, but what's the purpose/etymology of pen, please?
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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from Latin paene "almost" + ultimus "final" then there's preantepenultimate, and... 
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 8
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 8 |
Have some Madeira, m'Dear!
It's really an excellent year.
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say yes,
The evil gin does would be hard to assess
(Besides it's inclined to affect my prowess)
Have some Madeira, m'Dear!"
Then there flashed though her mind what her mother had said
With her antepenultimate breath:
"Oh my child, should you look at the wine which is red
Be prepared for a fate worse than death!"
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
then there's preantepenultimate, and... you can actually find this used quite a bit in discussions of stress and syllabication/syllabification. but here's my question: preantepenultimate is often defined as 'fourth from last'; why isn't it third from the last? ultimate: last penultimate: next to the last antepenultimate: second? from the last pre~: third? from the last unless, of course you're counting from the 'edge', as in a photo: on the left is.. second from the left.. third from the left
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
from Latin paene "almost"
Whence our peninsula (lit. 'almost an island').
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
> island
faskinating, thanks for that nunc - I had never made that connection (a bridge too far?)
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
> you can actually find this used quite a bit in discussions of stress and syllabication/syllabification. scene - interior, consultant's room, view of LA thro' windowConsultant: So, tell me, what triggers this overwhelming stress? Patient: It’s the syllables, doctor – every time I see antepenultimate I get in a tizzy because I don’t know if they mean fourth from last or third from last! but here's my question: preantepenultimate is often defined as 'fourth from last'; why isn't it third from the last?tsory, didn't mean to ignore your question. We might some of us remember this cropping up from Anu a while ago. It seems to me rather a confusion about what the label means – in other words, “third to last” may sound like it should be three behind the last, but the expression has grown up evidently meaning otherwise: ‘second to last’ commonly is clear as ‘the horse that came in ahead of only one other’ – it was (in this topsy-turvy inverted frame of reference) placed second, surpassed by only one in the race to the bottom. Hm, that’s prolly as clear as mud but.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Have some Madeira, m'Dear!
It's really an excellent year.
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say yes,
The evil gin does would be hard to assess
(Besides it's inclined to affect my prowess)
Have some Madeira, m'Dear!"
Thanks for reminding me of Flanders & Swann - underrated, and surely overdue for revival in perhaps a biographically based show...
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
you want not clear as mud? OED has this for preantepenultimate:
That precedes or stands immediately before the antepenult; the last but three.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
I think the confusion creeps in when you tried to specify
> antepenultimate: second? from the last [e.a.]
The common phrase I think is based on an elision:
Penultimate is ‘second [compared] to last’ whilst antepenultimate is ‘third to last’, leaving preantepenultimate in ‘fourth to last’ position (or the ‘last excepting three’ as per OED).
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