Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

You can also see it in the works of Disraeli's dad.

Do you suppose that people in the fifteenth century bemoaned the fact
that "presently" was being used to mean "right now" instead of
"without delay"?

I read both of those as having the "without delay" meaning.

On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:54:26 -0500, Stan Brown
<the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote in
<news:MPG.25c4d7af756d4d6698bec8@news.individual.net> in
alt.usage.english,sci.lang:

It's never meant 'sooner or later, when I/you get around to
it'; the actual meaning in question is 'as soon as possible,
without undue delay'.  Shakespeare's sense of 'at once' is
now obsolescent; the sense that competes with 'as soon as
possible' (and is decried by prescriptivists) is
'currently'.

[...]

Brian

I had this explained to me once, and forgot the details. But I have
found this, which backs up my vague memories. An interesting child is
one who is bright, eager to learn and well-behaved (virtuous).

(About a neglected child):
"Apart from her situation, she was not what would be called an
interesting child. She was neither pretty or quick in understanding, nor
remarkably pleasing in manners. "

http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/dequincey/opium3.html

"My dear little boy was now the only comfort I had left; he was then
four years old, a lovely aud interesting child ; but I dared not make to
myself another idol, as I was well convinced that in so doing, it would
be taken from me, and consequently strove to check every tender emotion.
He had been nearly a year at school, and began to read remarkably well,
for a child of his age."

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA205&dq=%22interesting%20child%22&cd=3&id=bpsY
AAAAYAAJ&output=text

"No sure prognostic can be made, but much is to be hoped from the
intelligence of the child, and the eager delight with which she lends
her attention, and the strong effort she evidently makes to gain new
ideas; not from fear of punishment, or hope of reward, but from the
pleasure which the exercise of the.faculties confers upon her. No pains
or expense will be spared in efforts to develope the moral and
intellectual nature of this interesting child, and no opportunity lost,
of gathering for science whatever phenomena her singular case may furnish."

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA76&dq=%22interesting%20child%22&cd=4&id=yEArA
AAAYAAJ&output=text

"It is impossible to behold from one hundred to one hundred and fifty
interesting children, from two to six years old, assembled together in
an orderly, regular manner, clean, and comfortably clad in general,
cheerful and happy, acquiring useful instruction and virtuous
impressions—and to contrast ...."

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA412&dq=%22interesting%20children%22&lr=&cd=20
&id=agkVAAAAIAAJ&output=text

That's the only thing of his I read. Well, I read the first book, and then
skipped to the last one to try to find an explanation for the sdetup, which
was the only interesting thing about it and I couldn't be bothered waising
through all the rest. But the explanation wasn't very satisfactory either.

The Great is a _division_ of an organ, the one played on the main
manual (usually second from the bottom), comprising several ranks. A
good-sized organ might have 20 ranks in the Great.

Swell.

Peter T. Daniels filted:

The hell with "same"....r

I think so.