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#131319 08/12/2004 12:30 AM
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The spell checker on my WORD 2003 program bounces back "daren't" as a non-word. Yet, M-W lists it. What's up with those chipheads at Microsoft?



#131320 08/12/2004 10:10 AM
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Parboly they took the top 10,000 words off the wordcount list and thought that'd be enough for any normal person.


#131321 08/12/2004 1:52 PM
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You need a special British version maybe, one that would include daren't, mustn't, and of course, dog's bollocks.
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang


#131322 08/12/2004 2:16 PM
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a special British version Oh, man--can't you just envision a "conversation" between British and U.S. spell-checkers? I think it would be a lot like that howl-worthy Abbott and Costello dialogue that Ted posted in W & F!

B: I say, daren't is indeed a word.
US: Naw.
B: Gnaw? I'm not hungry.


#131323 08/12/2004 9:55 PM
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That's funny Father Steve. If I set my Word program on Enlgish (US) it accept the word.

Tell me though, doesn't the U.S. versions of Word have dictionaries in a whole slew of languages like ours?


#131324 08/12/2004 10:23 PM
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Down south we don't much say "daren't"; but we sometimes do. Mostly we just say "dasen't", which is different.


#131325 08/13/2004 12:12 AM
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RANKIN: Indeed and they did. The poor Cadi is so terrified by all he has haird of the destruction of the Spanish fleet, that he daren't trust himself in the captain's hands.

..........

DRINKWATER: (in intense distress, appealing to Lady Cicely) Down't let em burn em, Lidy. They dasn't if you horder them not to.

Captain Brassbound's Conversion by George Bernard Shaw, Act III.




#131326 08/13/2004 3:02 AM
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What's up with those chipheads at Microsoft?

Padre, you're the best placed of all of us to do so, so why don't you jest mosey on down the road, kick down their front door and ask them?



#131327 08/13/2004 3:15 AM
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why don't you jest mosey on down the road, kick down their front door and ask them?

My darling daughter dated a Softie for a time and I thought that would give me all sorts of access into the inner workings of the Brain Trust in nearby Redmond. Boy, was I wrong! Those people are more tight-lipped than the CIA.



#131328 08/13/2004 12:55 PM
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daren't

My favorite form of dare is durst. Is there a form durstn't? There should be. Quite lovely. Why would anybody modify their speech based on the ravings of a prescriptivist (digital or human)?


#131329 08/13/2004 1:57 PM
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a Softie That's what they're called?? HA!

jheem, I think I've seen 'dursn't' in books, occasionally--usually where the characters' language is represented as colloquial. Hey--for some reason, my mind just flashed on Tom Sawyer. Anybody remember reading it there?


#131330 08/13/2004 2:09 PM
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I think I've seen 'dursn't' in books, occasionally

According to Google, Dickens. Though, maybe dasn't for Tom and Huck.

"Oh! I durstn't do it," rejoined the small servant; "Miss Sally 'ud kill me, if she know'd I come up here."

But I think these forms are from the present "dares not", whereas durst is a preterite or past participial form of to dare.

I durst not go abroad == I dared not go abroad.


#131331 08/13/2004 11:28 PM
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a Softie ... That's what they're called??

Yup, 'cause, if you called 'em "micros", nobody would know whatcha meant.


#131332 08/14/2004 12:01 AM
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My darling daughter dated a Softie for a time

Funny, in the Valley we allus called 'em rat bastards.


#131333 08/14/2004 7:28 PM
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Pennsylvania Dutch people use dare and daren't quite often. I particularly like the way my very Dutchified grandparents use dare. For instance, Grandma might say to a small grandchild staring longingly at a dish of candy, "You dare take one!" This meaning, in essence, "Don't be shy, you're allowed to have one!"



#131334 08/14/2004 7:51 PM
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Haven't heard much from Rapunzel in quite a while. The bookselling business must have been brisk and all-consuming.

Thanks for this insight into the sometimes-peculiar speech of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Have you seen the new television program where the producers put some Amish kids and some California kids in the same house and watch them interact?



#131335 08/14/2004 8:46 PM
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...doesn't the U.S. versions of Word have dictionaries in a whole slew of languages like ours?

Only if you choose to install all/the foreign language supports when setting Word up ... not that anyone on this board wouldn't choose to do so by default... [embarassed-e]



*********

Yes I "set Word up", I don't "set up Word", for the same reason I "take Word down", I don't "take down Word". Work with me here, Jackie...


#131336 08/14/2004 11:16 PM
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Have you seen the new television program where the producers put some Amish kids and some California kids in the same house and watch them interact?

I haven't-- don't go in for reality TV myself. Now, if the producers would put California kids on an Amish farm and make them live and work as the Amish do... that I might watch!



#131337 08/15/2004 12:00 AM
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#131338 08/15/2004 7:36 AM
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I looked at this a few days ago. They're not Amish kids as such, they're ex-Amish kids. It's as bad (and similar to) Big Brother ...


#131339 08/15/2004 10:33 AM
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It's as bad (and similar to) Big Brother ...

Woss all this knocking of Big Bro?

This season was the best they ever had, and if the finale, in which a Portuguese transsexual found the social acceptance she wanted by winning 74% of the public vote, did not bring tears to your eyes, then you're a harder man than I am Capfka Din.

cheer

the sunshine "I love Big Brother" warrior


#131340 08/15/2004 6:49 PM
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Sad, Ravi, sad. The whole show brings tears to my eyes. It's soooooo bad.


#131341 08/16/2004 12:57 AM
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Capfka has, of course, "got it" in the sense that reality TV now strives to be so bad that one is compelled to watch it ... like looking at the victims of an automobile accident or paying admission to see insane persons in an asylum or listening to Monica Lewinsky or paying attention to anything said by American politicians.




#131342 08/16/2004 11:48 AM
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They aren't ex-Amish, they are supposedly going through Rumspringa, Amish adolescent rebellion--experimentation with the outside world. However, I thought only males were allowed to participate in that and there are some females on the promo.


#131343 08/16/2004 12:01 PM
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re daren't bounces back as a non-word

Reminds me of a ditty, Father Steve, which wouldn't work as well, or at all, if "daren't" were substituted for "dare not".

Fain would I but I dare not
I dare and yet I may not
I may and yet I care not
For pleasure when I play not.


#131344 08/16/2004 12:18 PM
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I thought only males were allowed to participate in that

Males and females both participate in rumspringa, which is a church-sanctioned time of "sowing your wild oats" before making the final decision of whether or not to join the Amish church.
Once a person is formally a member of the Amish church, participating in the kinds of activities that take place during rumspringa would probably cause him or her to be shunned.


#131345 08/16/2004 1:05 PM
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re "rumspringa" ... a church-sanctioned time of "sowing your wild oats" before making the final decision of whether or not to join the Amish church.

How many times do the undecided get to participate in "rumspringa", Rapunzel?

For some pilgrims on the road to enlightenment, the journey is the destination.


#131346 08/16/2004 2:18 PM
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Can someone cognate this out for me? I'm thinking rum = roam (or room?) and springa = spring (ie leap).


#131347 08/16/2004 2:31 PM
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Can someone cognate this out for me?

I'm thinking rum for standard German herum 'about, around' and springa for springen 'to jump, hop, spring, gambol'. There is a verb herumspringen 'to bop around' in the dictionary, but I've never heard it used. Perhaps wsieber in der Schweiz can illuminate better.


#131348 08/17/2004 4:45 PM
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I "take Word down" Hey--I never knew you were religious! {wink}


#131349 08/17/2004 5:24 PM
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... like looking at the victims of an automobile accident or paying admission to see insane persons in an asylum or listening to Monica Lewinsky or paying attention to anything said by American politicians.

Gee, there's a quartet I'd never thought I'd hear get together and play. They could call themselves "Deer and the Headlights"



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