Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums Miscellany 1875 English Forums Calendar Active Threads Search Forum Help

Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread 1875 English #2502 05/17/00 04:34 PM 05/17/00 04:34 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie OP Carpal Tunnel Jackie   OP 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. Re: 1875 English #2503 05/17/00 10:03 PM 05/17/00 10:03 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 140 Melbourne, Australia 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." Re: 1875 English #2504 05/18/00 01:06 PM 05/18/00 01:06 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie OP Carpal Tunnel Jackie   OP 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 Topics13,883 Posts224,842 Members9,056 Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011 Newest Members Nikki1221, Veezkneez, LOC, Luna, wordie 9056 Registered Users Who's Online Now 1 registered members (1 invisible), 215 guests, and 3 spiders. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters(30 Days) wofahulicodoc 49 LukeJavan8 26 A C Bowden 15 LOC 1 Wordsmith 1 Top Posters(All Time) wwh 13,858 Faldage 13,803 Jackie 11,613 tsuwm 10,538 LukeJavan8 9,160 wofahulicodoc 7,970 Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210 AnnaStrophic 6,511 Wordwind 6,296 of troy 5,400

Default Style BlackNTan Drab eBay GooG v2 infopop new dark new light original dark original stock rounded corners Slate snow sunny dropshadow theblues Touch Of Grey UBB.threads UBB.threads - Dark UBB.threads - Light UBBCentral UBBCentral - Crimson UBBCentral - Lime UBBCentral - Marshmallow UBBCentral - Mocha UBBCentral - Zen ubbthreads ubbthreads-dark show/hide columns on this page Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Wordsmith.org