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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006Your message will appear momentarily
Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google Groups tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I experience a brief, or even momentary frisson of fear that my post will only be visible for an instant. After all that typing! Similarly, I feel slightly odd when N. Americans (and increasingly, alas, my compatriots) tell me that something is (present tense) happening 'presently'. Silly, I know. > Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google Groups > tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I experience a [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > tell me that something is (present tense) happening 'presently'. Silly, > I know. Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. We Leftpondians let the Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You have to let us get away with ours. There have been many prior threads in this group on both subjects, as you can confirm by checking with Google Groups.  SignatureBob Lieblich Who could care less > > Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google Groups > > tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I experience a [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > Bob Lieblich > Who could care less It seems to be one of those old canards that has to be raised on at least a monthly basis. I suppose in some contexts there might be ambiguity, but using "momentarily" for "after the elapse of a brief but unspecified period of time" seems perfectly sensible to me. Some of the other ways of conveying this [e.g. "I'll be with you in just a tick/a second"] seem a lot sillier. TOF In alt.usage.english, TOF wrote: >> > Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google Groups >> > tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I experience a [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >It seems to be one of those old canards that has to be raised on at >least a monthly basis. Well that's one possibility. Another possibility is that people are genuinely confused, even if (as the OP says) only briefly. There seems to be a reluctance to accept that American English isn't understood everywhere. SignatureMike Barnes Cheshire, England > Well that's one possibility. Another possibility is that people are > genuinely confused, even if (as the OP says) only briefly. Or, dare I say it, momentarily. Jonathan > Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. We Leftpondians let the > Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You > have to let us get away with ours. I say, old boy, low blow, what? "In hospital" makes more sense, as a parallel with "in school" or "in church", unless we are referring to a particular school, or church, or hospital. Meanwhile, someone remind me again why we let "anon" slip away. > > Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. We Leftpondians let the > > Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Meanwhile, someone remind me again why we let "anon" slip away. No idea. If someone says "Jim's in the hospital", many BritSpeakers (TM) would say "which one?". (unless they perceived the speaker to be N. American) People are "in jail" or "in prison" on both sides of the Atlantic, I think. Also in school or college. Do you say "at university"? > > > Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. We Leftpondians let the > > > Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Atlantic, I think. Also in school or college. Do you say "at > university"? In Australia, we could answer the question "what does your children do?" and alswo the question "where are your children now?" with "they are at school/university". They could instead be "at cricket/the beach" etc. TOF > > > > Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. We Leftpondians let the > > > > Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > TOF Whoops "what do your children do?. Mea Culpa. TOF >> Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. We Leftpondians let the >> Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >parallel with "in school" or "in church", unless we are referring to a >particular school, or church, or hospital. Except that in the UK we'd say "at school" or "at church". That's because one visits these establishments for parts of the day only. "In hospital", like "in prison", implies staying there overnight. It's all perfectly logical. SignatureKaty Jennison spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @ > Except that in the UK we'd say "at school" or "at church". Must be the 40 yrs I've spent in the West Country. Here in Bristol, many non-RP speakers informally say a child is 'in school' in an immediate sense - It's ten o'clock on a Monday morning. Mum's down the shops, Dad's in work, little Tim is in school. Ie little Tim is physically within the confines of the school building and grounds. Dad's in work, too, although he might emerge at lunch time to buy a sandwich from a nearby shop. When he comes home, he'll say to Mum, "Guess what I heard in work?" I was brought up in a middle class milieu in London, where people were 'at' work or school, and being 'in' work meant 'being employed'. (cf. ''out of work') > I was brought up in a middle class milieu in London, where people were > 'at' work or school, and being 'in' work meant 'being employed'. (cf. > ''out of work') WIWAL, we couldn't afford a milieu. SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. > > Except that in the UK we'd say "at school" or "at church". > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > 'at' work or school, and being 'in' work meant 'being employed'. (cf. > ''out of work') In work/school" is usual in Wales, too -- or at any rate the southern part, which is all I really know. South Wenglish has a lot of West of England features: cf "daps". SignatureMike. > > > Except that in the UK we'd say "at school" or "at church". > > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > part, which is all I really know. South Wenglish has a lot of West of > England features: cf "daps". Ah yes, at school in South Wales I certainly wore daps, though I never knew this was West of England usage too. In fact, words for daps and bread rolls are probably the best possible indicators of dialectical variation in English or any other language. For instance, asking for a 'pistolet' gets you a bread roll in Belgium buta blank look in France. Much the same blank look I got when asking for a bacon and egg barm last week. DC, off to buy a cheese bap in his tennis shoes. > That's because one visits these establishments for parts of the day > only. "In hospital", like "in prison", implies staying there > overnight. It's all perfectly logical. The times they are a-changing, and hospitals are trying to increase their throughput. When I think back to the times I've been in hospital, a good half of the occasions would have been in "day surgery", where the only bed I got was a table in the operating theatre. SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. >> Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google >> Groups tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. No. It's best to get a proper newsfeed and client. SignatureRegards John for mail: my initials plus a u e at tpg dot com dot au >>> Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google >>> Groups tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >No. It's best to get a proper newsfeed and client. I reluctantly admit that GG is probably the best free newsfeed there is out there right now in terms of its completeness and, increasingly, the speed with which posts show up -- it's just crap as an interface. I recently switched from a free server to my ISP's and now very much regret it, because I suspect that I'm not getting 20-30% of the posts to AUE. Unfortunately, I've lost the address of the free one. It was annoyingly slow downloading, but at least it was pretty complete. I seem to remember that it was some combination of "aoie" followed by "cjb.net", but can't for the life of me remember it exactly. Anyone know? (Oh, and before anyone suggests it, yes, I'm too cheap even to pay a couple of quid for the German server.) SignatureBrad Germolene Brad Germolene wrote, in <0n53m2d8jsq0v6h4808npgs8pg1s607nmp@4ax.com> on Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:57:31 +0100: > (Oh, and before anyone suggests it, yes, I'm too cheap even to pay a > couple of quid for the German server.) Another free German server has come on the scene. Go to <http://news.datemas.de/> to sign up. It seems to work reliably though I don't use it as my primary feed, my ISP's being excellent. All you have to do is send them your email address and a password of your choice. They should come back to you accepting your registration but they never did for me. After consulting with the guy who had recommended them to me I just plugged in their server address, my email address as username and the password I had given them into Agent and it worked! Their retention is good, the oldest message currently for this group is from 20th August. Completion not too bad, it has 99% of what I get from merging three other servers. Speed seems OK, I am on dialup and pulled 11500 headers in 10 minutes. SignatureNick Spalding Nick Spalding wrote, in <sjb3m2tnsfmgi1ao2c8gtm9rmpo083repa@4ax.com> on Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:14:23 +0000: > Brad Germolene wrote, in <0n53m2d8jsq0v6h4808npgs8pg1s607nmp@4ax.com> > on Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:57:31 +0100: [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > merging three other servers. Speed seems OK, I am on dialup and pulled > 11500 headers in 10 minutes. I have just noticed that they do spam filtering which I know that my ISP does not so that may easily explain the 1% difference in completion. SignatureNick Spalding >Nick Spalding wrote, in <sjb3m2tnsfmgi1ao2c8gtm9rmpo083repa@4ax.com> > on Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:14:23 +0000: [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] >I have just noticed that they do spam filtering which I know that my ISP >does not so that may easily explain the 1% difference in completion. Thanks a lot for this, Nick. I'll give it a try. SignatureBrad Germolene >> Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google Groups >> tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I experience a [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You > have to let us get away with ours. Pot, this is kettle. Receiving you loud and clear. Over. We do, Robert, we do. One of them is "hospitalized". Why is "in hospital" worse than "at home", "in bed", "out to lunch" or other such expressions? Best wishes Jonathan > >> Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google Groups > >> tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I experience a [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > We do, Robert, we do. One of them is "hospitalized". In St Clears, near where I used to live, there was a restaurant which really was hospitalized: after it had been taken over and enlarged beyond recognition by some partly-American health company, a friend had a hysterectomy there. It had previously served the best faggots in the world, I'm told. > Why is "in hospital" worse than "at home", "in bed", "out to lunch" or > other such expressions? Some places prefer "in my[etc] bed", though. My b-i-l is Yorks, and my sister momentarily misunderstood the constant references among his sibs to "my Dad": she thought there must be some pretty heavy sibling rivalry going on. I'm trying to remember where I've heard the good old "abed" in the wild. SignatureMike. > Some places prefer "in my[etc] bed", though. My b-i-l is Yorks, and my > sister momentarily misunderstood the constant references among his sibs > to "my Dad": she thought there must be some pretty heavy sibling > rivalry going on. When I was at university, I had a flatmate who came from Bristol. She always referred to "our Mum", and "my Dad", although she and her brothers all had the same parents. Fran >>> Maybe it's because I went to school in England, but when Google Groups >>> tells me that my message will appear 'momentarily' I experience a [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >Why is "in hospital" worse than "at home", "in bed", "out to lunch" or >other such expressions? It isn't, but I gather the Cousins tend to hear it the way "He's gone to bank" or "I saw Mrs Whatsaface at newsagent's" sounds to us. SignatureBrad Germolene >>Why is "in hospital" worse than "at home", "in bed", "out to lunch" or >>other such expressions? > >It isn't, but I gather the Cousins tend to hear it the way "He's gone >to bank" or "I saw Mrs Whatsaface at newsagent's" sounds to us. To add to the confusion, the general hospital near where I grew up was officially called The Royal Albert Edward Infirmary. So we tended to talk to about people being in the infirmary. You can't drop the the from that. SignatureOn-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk (Waterways World site of the month, April 2001) My Reply-To address *is* valid, though likely to die soon Jonathan Morton filted: >> Yup, silly. Best to wince and bear it. We Leftpondians let the >> Rightpondiens get away with such barbarisms as "in hospital." You >> have to let us get away with ours. > >Why is "in hospital" worse than "at home", "in bed", "out to lunch" or >other such expressions? Now you've got me wondering about "at stool"...you hear about someone popping a blood vessel while "straining at stool", which gives the word the feel of a pseudogerund in the manner of such leisure activities as "tennis" and "needlepoint"....r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. > Jonathan Morton filted: > > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Now you've got me wondering about "at stool"...you hear about someone popping a > blood vessel while "straining at stool", Famously, Churchill on how he'd been made to look in the Sutherland portrait, AIR. DC |
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