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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread #2502 - 05/17/00 04:34 PM 1875 English   Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Jackie Jackie   Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky During 1999 and 2000, our newspaper has been reprinting articles from the past. There is a sentence in today's that I cannot comprehend. It is: "It was made up of every element; but place aux dames et demoiselles before the pen shall treat of another feature." The article was about the running of the first Kentucky Derby. Immediately preceding the sentence was an estimate of the crowd's numbers. Immediately following the sentence, and ending the article, was, "It is much, indeed, when attention and admiration mey be diverted from the prime object which has gathered a great assemblage together, but not the Derby itself, with its absorbing interest and excitement, will linger so long in the minds of the spectator there." WHEW!! With difficulty, I navigated (I think) the meaning of the ending sentence, but that other one confounds me. I know that aux is the French plural for 'at the' or 'to the', but even so I don't get what the writer means. I would appreciate anyone's suggestions on this. #2503 - 05/17/00 10:03 PM Re: 1875 English   Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 140 lusy member lusy   member Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 140 Melbourne, Australia It's certainly a weird sentence, Jackie, but could we be looking at a typo here? "Place" instead of "pace", the latter having been used in the sense of "by your leave"? The whole sentence could then perhaps be paraphrased as: "The large crowd was made up of every element, but I must beg the pardon of the (beautiful) ladies, before I write of anything else." #2504 - 05/18/00 01:06 PM Re: 1875 English   Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Jackie Jackie   Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Sounds good to me, Lusy, thanks. Our newspaper had "place"--no way to tell if that was an old or new typo. Besides the fact that I often actually learn something, the flowery, convoluted sentences in these older articles fascinate me as I compare them to the typical usage of today. Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------   Information and announcements   Q&A about words   Wordplay and fun   Words and languages in schools   Miscellany   Weekly Themes   Looking for (writers, speakers, ...) (Old) Weekly themes. (have been consolidated into a single forum above) ------   Words from medicine   Beheading words   Meta-words   Words from classical mythology   Animal Safari   Words with unusual etymologies   Eponyms or words derived from people's names.   Loanwords from German   English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode View Profile Send Private Message Follow User Show Forum Posts View Profile Send Private Message Follow User Show Forum Posts View Profile Send Private Message Follow User Show Forum Posts Forum Statistics Forums16 Topics13,878 Posts223,864 Members9,013 Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011 Newest Members Ahmed, KathrynH, Waqar_Ali, brecht, Akintola 9013 Registered Users Who's Online Now 0 registered members (), 49 guests, and 3 spiders. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters(30 Days) wofahulicodoc 51 LukeJavan8 21 A C Bowden 18 Top Posters(All Time) wwh 13,858 Faldage 13,803 Jackie 11,613 tsuwm 10,538 LukeJavan8 8,961 wofahulicodoc 7,457 Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210 AnnaStrophic 6,511 Wordwind 6,296 of troy 5,400

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