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Carpal Tunnel
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Very fine article in June Vocabula Review, by Orin Hargraves about American English vs. other versions.
Startly to me, statement near end of article that says there are a 000hundred million English words.
"Likewise in the area of linguistic research, Britons can point with pride to the British National Corpus, a searchable database of a staggering 100 million words of British English."
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Carpal Tunnel
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I suppose that's really 100,000, American.
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Carpal Tunnel
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one would think that in a word article, they would clarify the million.  [gray]waiting for my coming million. or is that the next million?[/gray]
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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I goofed again. The article was long enough my peepers were pooped. It was talking about a database from which frequencies, etc. could be determined.
Not words in a dictionary.
I very much regret having gotten excited over nothing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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nothing like pooped peepers. all things being what they are, however, the use of million in a multi-English setting should be clarified. billions of people could end up very confused...
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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The good-humoured efforts of our beloved USns to suggest that "million" doesn't mean the same thing in the English-speaking world that it does in the US reminded me of something. They reminded me that English already had a perfectly good word for what US hegemony has now ensured is known universally as a billion. Bring back the milliard!
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Bring back the milliard!
let's see: million, milliard, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion...
yep, that makes lots of sense I guess, in the usual UK sense of making sense.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Besides, a milliyard is a thousandth of a yard. Comes out to 0.036 inch.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I thought it was where they stored all the lumber...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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I thought it walked like a duck...
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Carpal Tunnel
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walked like a duck
That's Milliard Fillmore.
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Carpal Tunnel
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i thought it was the fore-court to a hat shop!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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It could be a thronging place.
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Carpal Tunnel
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it's all so thoroughly modern....
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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> English already had a perfectly good word for what US hegemony
I rest my case. Almost every one of those mocking this fine word, in the posts that followed its introduction to the thread, is a USn. Even tsuwm's post ignores the fact that English also had a billion, before American perverted its meaning and used it to erase the milliard. Nuff said.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here, have a harrumph® on me, dear.
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>Here, have a harrumph® on me, dear. No, no, not at all. Communicating by computer is all about pushing buttons, and my use of that delightful word hegemony certainly seems to have pushed just about everybody's.  wyrd-sisters-e
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Even tsuwm's post ignores the fact that English also had a billion, before American perverted its meaning and used it to erase the milliard. Nuff said.
yes, my post not only ignored that fact, but had the temerity to attempt to explain the logic of the perversion through [shudder] the use of irony.
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>yes, my post not only ignored that fact, but had the temerity to attempt to explain the logic of the perversion through [shudder] the use of irony.
Yes, I know. That's why your post was such a disappointment to me. Everybody else took the bait, you simply resorted to rational reasoning. Shame on you.
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Carpal Tunnel
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The word is of French origin. The USn usage corresponds to the French usage. I rest our case.
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old hand
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I rest our case.
What case? You don't think I ever actually use the awful, pretentiously silly-sounding "milliard" do you?
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Carpal Tunnel
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No, you say thousand million. I thgought we were arguing about what a billion meant. BTW, do you have a thousand billion between billion and trillion? Is there a corresponding awful, pretentious silly sounding billiard?
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Carpal Tunnel
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you mean I was manipulated to say clever and witty word plays?<giant asterisk, whatever that means>
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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and I'm ignoring the obvious pool cues... for fear that it wouldn't really be me who says it, just some fabrication from someone else's mind coming out of mine through manipulation....
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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>No, you say thousand million.
No, I don't - I say a billion. The US won that war long ago. As for a billiard, I'm not sure. I don't know how to break this to tou, but I think your question was poorly framed. Unlike etaoin, I can take a cue, and since I'm now totally cornered, will chalk this one up to experience.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Do you think Bill Gates would be any more popular if he were only a millionaire (times sixty thousand, or whatever)?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Who wants the bother of a country estate?
A country estate is something I'd hate!
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