#99018
03/18/2003 3:54 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
I don't think this one has been mentioned here before. (Jackie, note the reference to John McPhee!) http://www.thediscouragingword.com/
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#99019
03/18/2003 10:57 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Yes, he is a fine author who uses many words that are new to me, and he's not just rodomontading, either. [dig e]
Here's the quote the site has: As if in a minor earthquake, the truck trembled for minutes after he was gone, its corrosive fluid seiching back and forth.
I notice, though, that at one point the writer (on the site, not Mr. McPhee) says "an 1839", and in another place he has "a 1864". I saw the latter first, and wondered if it was some variant usage.
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#99020
03/19/2003 11:02 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Yet Another Case of grammar by meaning vs. grammar by form. No one would think of saying twenty percent has.
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#99021
03/19/2003 11:50 AM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
The discussion of the word "sieche" was interesting, because it was used, in a slightly altered form, by Frank Herbert to describe the cave-dwellings of the Arrakis Fremen in the Dune books. Some sieches had large underground lakes. I wonder if there is a causal relationship?
- Pfranz
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#99022
03/19/2003 9:51 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>grammar by meaning vs. grammar by form
well yeah; if you're really talking about a sample of five people, I suppose you should say 'one in five has', but if your sample is 100..
-ron o.
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