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Christopher Murray said:
"I"m done" sounds wrong to me, making me think of being fully cooked, as Martha suggested. "I"m finished" sounds slightly better, but still makes me think the end is nigh. I would say "I"ve finished."
On a show several years ago, a caller said her father always reminded her that "done" is when the meat has cooked, and "through/thru" was when you are finished with something. That is also is what sounds right to my ear.
(Can't get rid of that lavender background. Arghhh!)
Some words that should show one's age go by without notice: dial a number (with push buttons), tape a program (on a chip).
Zombies: It is not dead reckoning, but ded reckoning - from deduced. On cloudy days, the sun and stars can't be seen to get a position with sextant and chronometer, so it is deduced from speed, compass bearing, and drift. Out of range of Loran stations, it was the most common form until GPS got within a mile of accurate.
In British Columbia, it was GArazh.
The: Words starting with U get elided: thumbrella.
"Outdated" songs get the same way. As Time Goes By was written well before its lasting fame in Casablanca. God Bless America was written in 1917, flopped, and consigned to the trunk until 1940.
Hyperpolyglots: There is a saying that after three, it is easy. I wouldn't know, being "educated" in Texas, I do well to speak English and almost read French, yet I can see some logic in it from having to archive in several languages in which I have a decipher with translating dictionary ability.
Comfortable words: The mid-20th century essayist, Harry Golden, claimed the best was belladonna and the worst was slalom.
The song about the old woman and the pig is structured very closely on Froggy Went a Courting. The lines ended in mm, mm, grum' [glottal stop], and the whole thing in mm, mm, and a realistic imitation of a bullfrog's jug-a-rum sound. There's bread and cheese upon the shelf, If you want to hear more, you can sing it yourself, is almost a cliché ending in folk songs.
Hippogriff said:
Zombies: It is not dead reckoning, but ded reckoning – from deduced. On cloudy days, the sun and stars can't be seen to get a position with sextant and chronometer, so it is deduced from speed, compass bearing, and drift. Out of range of Loran stations, it was the most common form until GPS got within a mile of accurate.
See this link for a different opinion:
<http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2053/is-dead-reckoning-short-for-deduced-reckoning>
This was the first episode of your show that I've heard, and it was great!
I created an account mostly to chime in with the caller that could "feel" words, and to say that I've also been struggling for most of my adult life to explain this to other people. Although the words I despise (often words with -ood sounds, like rude, or virtually any word with an -ie sound at the end of it) are different from hers, I think my level of revulsion is similar. The actual definition of a word doesn't seem to really matter whether or not my brains enjoy it.
That said, I think your calling this a mild synesthesia is probably the best description that I've seen for it - hearing it in connection with hating specific word sounds felt like getting hit by a thunderbolt - so thanks for that.
Synesthesia
Danny said:
Grant Barrett said:
If it's ten of five, what time is it? Is it the same as ten till five? Why, yes it is! Ten of five, or ten till five, are both appropriate ways to say 4:50.
On the show, Grant made an offhand comment that when we say "ten till five", the word "till" is "short for until". Is that right?? I remember learning that "till" is an OLDER word than "until", and was never its abbreviated form. Anyone want to weigh in on this?
Til (no apostrophe) is older than till which is older than until. Old English til > Middle English til, till > New English til, till, until. For me, till is what a farmer does to the ground or a money box. I like til.
- He slepeth...Al nyght til the sonne gan aryse. — The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer, c1390
- I just don't know how to just come out in the blue and say it, so I just wait til it comes up... — The Role of Close Friends in African American Adolescents' Dating and Sexual Behavior, 2004
EmmettRedd said:
hippogriff said:
Dick: I would have liked to have read your link, but it was disallowed because of "unacceptable characters" whatever that means.
I think I had the page come up (a few days ago) by removing the last three characters, ">".
Emmett
Try this:
<http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2053/is-dead-reckoning-short-for-deduced-reckoning
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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