Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

W3NID indicates that the etymology of 'misfire' is via 'mis-' and 'fire',
as one might expect.  Robert Louis Stevenson suggests otherwise.  He
writes (in "The Two Matches"), "With that he struck the match, and it
missed fire.".  Sounds like 'misfire' was originally a misspelling or

I'm not a native English speaker.
As you can see the subject above, I am a bit confused about the use of
"people".
I thought "people" should be treated as a 'singular' noun.

I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5
year old:
"USB 2.0 cable A/male to B/male 1.8m in Grey".
Is there an alternative, equally succinct system of naming these male and

Seeing a current American scandal as an opportunity to recycle a joke,
I asked a friend this morning, "Why don't Congressmen use bookmarks?"
He said, "They just send e-mails?"
It took a little confusion to establish that I meant the old kind of

Hi, everyone.

less than helpful: not at all helpful
In this dilemma, Eliot was less than helpful to his apologists.

Another mishy-phen for the record is 'reap-
pear', which appears (once, I think) in the
current issue of _Notices of the American
Mathematical Society_.

For BrE speakers, is the choice of the past tense (vs. the present
tense) arbitrary in the last sentence here (i.e. "did," "was") or is
the past mandated (at least in more traditional contexts) by the
British politeness?

The other day I heard an Austrian say, "We do have a special tradition --
on 31, October, we gamble with dices for some kind of sweet bread".  
Is there anyone who is familiar with this Austrian tradition?  What he
meant is sweet-tasted bread or the pancreas of a young cow or ...

I need some guidance here for usage of different tenses in one
sentence.
I'm not an English native speaker.
- What's the general rules of combining two tenses especially present

For improving my english. But where are these Pubs? Thanks

This actually came up on a mailing list.  Anyone know the history of
"Jerry" and "Gerry" as nicknames for "Gerald" and "Gerard"?  Am I right
in thinking that "Jerry" was once the usual form?  How about in
thinking that "Gerry" was originally Irish?  I'm quite sure that lots

There is a certain type of American accent that I hear from time to
time on US TV shows, seemingly always spoken by younger women, that I
can't identify. It is characterised by what sound to me like "mangled"
vowels. I don't know if it is regional, or social-class-related, or

First off, I would like to apologize in advance if these are not the
best NGs to post my story, and question.
Every morning I walk on the beach and then stay there for a while to
see the wonderful scenery. In September I encountered a beautiful woman

Double negatives were once common:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0611070296nov08,1,5357752.
story
or

Is "that" preferred to "this" in BrE in such circumstances, as in "did
that," or are they equally utilized? I mean, "the fact" was mentioned
right in the previous sentence, thus suggesting, at least to me, a
"this."