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stranger
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stranger
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 Massachusetts instituted stable laws in the late 1880's. To this day, they still consider their laws as refering to places where horses are for hire. One of their laws gives local boards of health authority to place regulations over stables in cities and large towns. I have three old, retired horses on my farm for my own personal use. The local board of health voted regulations for stables in 1986. They contend I have a stable.I can not find a definition for stable in the Massachusetts General Law. The dictionaries I have consulted define stable as a place where horses are kept. I am trying to find an older dictionary to see if I can prove the definition that stables are places horses are kept for hire. Can you help me?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here's a link to the only place I know that has old dictionaries; unfortunately none of the three old ones listed are going to help you in your cause--good luck! stable def.'s
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome, maxie. I think you’ll struggle to prove such a narrow definition, since the root comes from long before anyone had taken horses to America let alone hired them out. The word comes from Old French estable and ultimately from Latin stabulum, derived from a Latin root (sta~ from stare) that meant to stand. For ages it was used to describe a stall for all kinds of domesticated livestock, not specifically horses: compare for example the modern French word étable, which means ‘cowhouse’. The OED also gives this other meaning suggestive of other kinds of whorses! 2. b. slang. A group of prostitutes working for the same person or organization.  There are a family of related words, including establishment and stable (in the ‘standing firm’ sense).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think what you're looking for is the specific term "livery stable."
livery stable noun (1705)
: a stable where horses and vehicles are kept for hire and where stabling is provided called also livery barn
(C) 1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Alas the definition of stable seems to be unstable. Your only hope is to destabilize your barn.
/subbing for TEd
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veteran
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veteran
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Good luck, maxie, in your attempt to reason with a greedy bureaucracy, but it's well known that Taxachusetts tax collectors reason like a snake reasons with a mouse. Of course the intent of the law was to tax the three-horse, for-hire, "livery" stables of the 19th Century and not to tax any good Massachusetts citizen of today who likes to board horses just for kicks.  So what? Just be glad they didn't tax your cat. Best you move your three whorses and taxes to Texas and begin a new life. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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On the other hand, if it's the board of health that's your adversary, perhaps it matters not one whit what you do with the horses. Health is health.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Perhaps a more useful book in which to look might be Julie I. Fershtman, Equine Law and Horse Sense, Horses & the Law Publ., 1996. ISBN: 0964843005
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veteran
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veteran
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Quote:
On the other hand, if it's the board of health that's your adversary, perhaps it matters not one whit what you do with the horses. Health is health.
Quite right, Faldage. Certainly no one can question
your astute observation that "Health is Health".
But why are we whispering? Isn't maxie* still alive and kicking?
HEY MAXIE*,
WHAT IS THE DAMN GOVERNMENT ASKING YOU TO DO THAT MADE YOU SO DAMN MAD!
Edit: Oops! Sorry, maxie, it seems I called you aurtia. Who's aurtia?
Last edited by themilum; 01/13/06 04:16 AM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is Aurtia supposed to answer for Maxie?
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