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Sez You... | ||||||
From R.J.
Corby:
We are pleased that you found what you were looking for at this site. We hope you'll be back! |
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From Dennis Foley:
Indeed! |
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From Mike Steede:
We shouldn't laugh. [Teehee!] |
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From Ika
Gorelik:
Thanks for your erudite explanation, Ika. Could it be that Heilel Ben Shakhar was an oblique reference to the Babylonian goddess known variously as Innanna, Ishtar, Astarte and Ashtaroth who was associated with the "morning star"? |
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From Steve Parkes:
Yes, you are probably correct in suggesting that the UK television program Till Death Do Us Part (on which the US's All in the Family was based) had some influence on the pronunciation of get as git. However, that pronunciation was not unknown before the television program, so it is difficult to measure its influence. |
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From Brad Daniels:
Thanks, Brad! |
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From Mary E.
Cygan:
Sure, it's a useful distinction to make but that's not the issue. An HR department which issues a form asking employees to enter their "gender" is not asking for a culturally constructed difference. They mean plain old biological "sex" and should say so. Their use of "gender" when they mean "sex" is simply euphemism. Ms. Ginsburg is an educated woman and may well have come into contact with the usage you suggest. This should not have influenced her choice of vocabulary, though. After all, she used to represent women who were being harassed because they were biologically female. As far as I know, she never represented a female impersonator who had been harassed for a "culturally constructed difference". As for the lisp, we heard this explanation on NPR when Ms. Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court. One of her former colleagues was being interviewed. |
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From Peter Wise:
Very interesting. What we really must do is see the original French version of Balzac's work to determine what words he was using (we were unable to find a French version before publication time). Penguin Classics' translations are known for not being very accurate (Mike worked for Penguin as a younger lad). However, if the French words are similar to their English counterparts, we still cannot give credit to Balzac for starting the -rama craze in English, only French. |
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From Jonathan
Kurz:
Another cocky reader trying to one up us! Hmmmph! "Dropped the ball"? "Stopped [our] research", eh? Pshaw! The word scab used to refer to strike-breakers is quite a bit older than "the early part of this century", the period given by the article you cite. The article also claims that "Still Collecting All Benefits" was a term used by management. There are several reasons why this does not make sense to us:
We
have found several examples of scab used to mean
"strike breaker" from as far back as the 18th century. How
about these:
and :
and, finally, one from the U.S. :
When we say "Take Our Word For It" we mean it. But you trusted a site bereft of etymological expertise (or even basic knowledge) over us. Shame on you! |
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© 1995-2001 TIERE
Last Updated 02/13/01 11:25 AM