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#30236 05/29/01 11:48 AM
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In reply to:


The Compact Disc was invented by the Dutch company Philips, so they used the British spelling, and as it's actually a proprietary term I think you'll find all compact discs are so marked and spelt.

It becomes rather confusing now that compact discs are used for computer storage, just as floppy disks and hard disks are.




This is fascinating, NW... so now we're back to corporate influence on the language? I suppose it should come to me as no surprise...


#30237 05/29/01 04:13 PM
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This brings to mind a very similar question I had wanted to ask.

What about 'bank' and 'banc'? The building is a bank, I do my financial business at the bank. My draft promissory notes (note the adroitness with which I elude the 'check/cheque' argument) say 'Ripoff Bank.' Yet the name of the corporation that owns and operates all the retail banks in the chain, and all of the other financial undertakings is 'The Ripoff Banc' or 'Ripoff Bancshares.' I assume this is coming from the French, but I'm unclear on what, exactly, are the apparently very clear differences.


#30238 05/29/01 04:27 PM
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what, exactly, are the apparently very clear differences

err, spelling?!?

I may be missing something here, slov, but this just seems to me bank = English, banc = French (and Welsh and other latinate languages as in banco etc)


#30239 05/29/01 05:09 PM
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What! you use a bank? Not a financial service institution? Chase Manhattan -- has become Chase and dropped manhattan and bank*. Citi has kept bank-- but under the red umbrella of Travellers-- (insurance)-- and it advertizes its self as a "financial services group!" (*the manhattan part of the Chase started out as a water company-- the company had a single line in there charter about "lending and borrowing money"-- with in 10 years, the "water" part of the company was defunct-- and the Manhattan company was a bank-- but as an artifact, many NYC Chase branches have peices of the original water mains-- rumor has it-- that some small building in NYC still have water delivered to their building with these going on 150+ year old pipes.)

back in the '20's-- with the collapse of the market (stock) bank, brokers and insurance were all seperated.. now holding companies have all three-- so i started out with one company as my broker, an other as my bank, and a third as my insurance agency-- Now all three eggs are in one basket!

and thrown in for interest (I'll say for interest! ) are credit cards. (i never carry a balance, so i am immune to the usarous rate-- as high as 23%!)

slovovio-- is yours an international institution-- or a US one? I don't remember ever seeing a US bank with a legal name of "Ripoff Banc"-- but any number of Canadian-- and european banks are "banc". -- its sometime hard to tell.
In NYC--many international banks operate branches and have US charters, (and Federal insurance for deposits)


#30240 05/29/01 05:33 PM
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Bank One, aka First USA Bank, spells its banking business as "bank." But, if you get a mortgage loan from Bank One, Bank One sells its mortgagee interest to a mortgage company, presumably held by the same umbrella interest, called "Banc One." They are emphatic about the spelling, since the k/c difference distinguishes two legal entities. I suppose there is another head of the hydra somewhere which calls itself "Banque One."


#30241 05/29/01 05:37 PM
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and its checking a/c sibling, Blanque Juan


#30242 05/29/01 05:37 PM
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Let's see if this sheds any light on it (doubtful).

From the Ripoff Bancshares, Inc. website:

[block]Corporate Profile
Ripoff Bancshares, Inc. is a registered bank holding company offering a full line of banking[!] services, including investment management and securities brokerage. The Company currently operates in over 300 locations in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas.

The Company also has operating subsidiaries involved in morgage banking, credit related insurance, venture capital, and real estate activities.[/block]

Oh, right. Thanks. Clears it right up, eh?

Yet I log onto www.ripoffbank.com to do my online account ministrations.

Obviously I've inserted my own editorial thumbprint by renaming it to Ripoff, but the rest is verbatim.

So-- maybe a banc is a bank holding company? Does this whole distinction seem like a great lot of very dodgy corporate goose sauce to anyone else?


#30243 05/29/01 05:39 PM
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No letter c in the big five Canadian banks. You have Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank. All spelled "Banque", as far as I know, in their French translations. (This is easy to check out on their websites but I didn't feel like looking at them all.) I've never seen it spelled Banc.

Upon reading the above posts I've decided that the system must be somehwhat different in the US than here. Still the two websites I checked out only spelled it Bank under Corporate Information.

#30244 05/29/01 05:42 PM
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Yes, you're surely right Bean - I am confusing Welsh and French, not for the first time (to the amusment of all bystanders in either country)

And I think you have it, Slovovoi: it is corporate custard of a slightly different colour, but the same old stale pudding underneath


#30245 05/29/01 05:54 PM
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>custard of a slightly different colour...

perhaps, under the confluence of circumstances, we could refer to it as a blancmange?


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