Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

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THERE'S SO MUCH BULLSHIT IN THE DEFENSE
OF MAN'S EVOLUTION, WE ALL OUGHT TO BE
WALKING AROUND IN FISHERMEN'S HIP BOOTS.

I'm not getting the idea of "antedate" here. I know though about
antedated checks:-)
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NOW thou hast loved me one whole day,

Stephanie recently posted saying:  "My Young Man and I went out for a
curry and a film tonight."
This got me thinking of how we describe what we go out for.  I might
write that we went out for a steak, out for a hamburger, or out for a

I am fascinated with the sound and melody of American English. I have
learned it for years now quite successfully as many times the Americans I
spoke with could not believe that I am not a native AmE speaker :) However,
I know best of all that I still need a lot of practice so as ...

http://www.the-scientist.com/templates/trackable/display/blog.jsp?type=blog&o_ur
l=blog/display/55679&id=55679:
"The
Scientist obtained two 2003 issues of the journal -- which bore the
imprint of Elsevier's Excerpta Medica -- neither of which carried a

1. Is "pants" here BrE for "underpants/underwear?"
2. "Trousers rucked up"
is it
"creased and slid up on the leg"

I was just recently reminded of another difference between OZ-English
and US-English by this headline from the Sydney Morning Herald:
"Bulldogs down Tigers in clash of hookers". It evokes an interesting
picture for a US English speaker.

In an article about fixing the Hubble:
"We're all happy to report that the STIS has come back with a good
aliveness test."  
(STIS = Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph)

This is a first rate article on prejudice from the Australian, it
reminds me that, 'Homophobia' means fear of men ⋁ fear of things that
are the same, like twins: http://tinyurl.com/q6la5c

Most Englishmen of my acquaintance
   are Assyriologists.
They would not use a word like "arse"
   in front of their proctologists.

I just got into Christie's short stories, and I have all of them in
audio expect The Mousetrap. I am assuming it's b/c she requested that
it should remain as stage drama. Perhaps this is why I can't seem to
find it on the internet at all. At the point I am even willing to buy

"The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin
scar...He had had it as long as he could remember..."
Why the use of "had had" and not just "had"?
Thanks!

In which British accent(s) is the word "club" pronounced /klUb/?  An
example would be the guy who voices the teases[1] for "The Comedy
Club" on BBC R7.
-GAWollman

I need a word.  I'm having a tangential discussion on talk.origins about
liars.  There's someone who thinks 90% of the people in the world are
liars, and he throws me into that pack, and I was highly offended because
I always strive not only to be truthful, but to go into extra ...

Is there any difference between TOWARD and TOWARDS?
Thanks for any assistance,
Jay