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Posted By: kummini inst. and prox. - 05/17/00 05:01 AM
Hello.

Are the expressions 9th inst. and 20th prox. archaic? Are the specific to some variant of English such as american English or Brtish English?

Thanks,
Manoj

Bangalore India
12°58' N, 77°39' E

http://www.geocities.com/kummini/
Posted By: jmh Re: inst. and prox. - 05/17/00 07:08 AM
They certainly were used a lot in British business letters in the past.

We were told at school in the sixties not to use them, I suppose they have been relegated to "officialese" these days. I'm not sure if they were common in the USA or Australia.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: inst. and prox. - 05/17/00 04:26 PM
I'd venture that they are not "common" in the US; I've never seen these usages and could only guess at what they signify.


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Posted By: jmh Re: inst. and prox. - 05/17/00 05:06 PM
Intt would have been used, most commonly, as the first sentence of a letter.

Eg. Thank you for your letter of the 14th inst. (meaning last month).

Prox. usually refers to next month.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: inst. and prox. - 05/17/00 05:18 PM
so prox. abbreviates proximo and inst. is instant... although MWC gives this sense of instant as "of the current month".



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Posted By: jmh Re: inst. and prox. - 05/17/00 08:37 PM
Yep, you're right again - it does mean the current month, I always did get that one wrong!

Posted By: lusy Re: inst. and prox. - 05/17/00 09:11 PM
Yes, Jo, they were certainly in use down under, and let's not forget "ult" (ultimo) for the last month.

Posted By: jmh Re: inst. and prox. - 05/18/00 06:04 AM
Thanks for ult. - I was thinking of Latin abbreviations and couldn't remember that one. I think we've got them all now. QED.

Posted By: Philip Davis Re: inst. and prox. - 05/18/00 07:34 AM
As a PS I can take Latin abbreviations PRN, although I take this site at least OD, often BD, sometime TDS and occasionally QID.

Philip

Signed pp Jan the Dog, general dogsbody &c.

Posted By: jmh Re: Latin - 05/18/00 09:28 AM
>I take this site at least OD, often BD, sometime TDS and occasionally QID

And would you prescribe the same for others?

Posted By: Philip Davis Re: Latin - 05/18/00 09:46 AM
I'd Rx AWAD stat and then prn.

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