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From David Mein:
3 to 1 in favor of the Aunt. Anyone else? From Brad Daniels:
From Joseph Byrd:
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From Richard Hershberger:
That does indeed have a venerable history of use in instances where last week's curmudgeon feels who should be employed. We ourselves did read of that's history in Fowler and elsewhere. However, the history is not the issue. The issue is that who is available for use in those instances, so why even use that, despite the history? Does the fact that ain't has been used for centuries cause one to use it in place of isn't or aren't or am not? Using who is more elegant and more efficient, we curmudgeons [Malcolm and Barb] believe. From Gordon Barlow:
Shakespeare's writings, the King James Version of the Bible - these are all great (and old) literary works. They sound like great and old literary works, too, in their usage of that. "To them that sit in darkness" sounds to our curmudgeonly [M & B] ears very archaic and slightly clumsy, or quirkily poetic, depending upon our mood From Beverly:
Malcolm was always taught "who art in heaven". Maybe that's the root of his preference for who over that, or which in this case! Clearly, as we see it, it was (and still is with some) an issue of different grammar rules/preferences and not of ignorance. |
From Julio Comello:
Thanks, Julio! |
From M. "Charlie"
Ferrazzi:
Glad you liked 'em! From Joseph Byrd:
Well, thank you! Clearly humor tastes differ as widely as grammar tastes! |
From Stephen Blackburn:
Fascinating. In a brief scan of resources, we haven't found anything to confirm that, but we've found nothing to deny it, either. |
From Bruce Yanoshek
From Julie Brou:
It's not surprising that you both suspected a connection between Old English ampte and our word amputate. However, while the words are not directly related, the Germanic roots of ant are a- "off, away" and maitan "to cut" so that the ant was a "cutter off". Amputate came to English from Latin amputare, formed from amb- "around" and putare "to prune, lop". The ant, in essence, is an amputator! |
From Steve Parkes:
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From J. Alan Munro:
Actually, a chinook wind is a wind that blows down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, warming and drying as it sinks*. It can raise the temperatures of areas it passes by several degrees in a matter of minutes. The word was taken from the name of a group of Indians who lived along the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. There is also the chinook salmon, so named because it was found in the Columbia River. *The process by which the air warms as it sinks down the mountain slopes is known as adiabatic compression. The Santa Ana winds of Southern California are formed by the same process. The mother of all these winds is the foehn (or föhn) of the Alps. All of these are katabatic winds (descending by force of gravity; from Greek katabatos "descending"). |
A reader asked last issue whether pizza might be related to piazza and other "flat" words (discussed in Spotlight of Issue 169). We neglected to provide a link to our previous discussion of pizza last week, so here it is now. |
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