American English

[Brianwarnock]

therein: the, there, he, her, here, herein, ere, re, rein, in.

re is either an abbreviation or a name and therefore is surely not permitted.

Brian

 

[Rabbie]

re is either an abbreviation or a name and therefore is surely not permitted.

Brian

re is in my Concise Oxford Dictionary as a preposition used in legal documents so I suppose we have to allow it

 

[Fifty2One]

I joined an anagram group to help me learn this messed up language of English, it was one of the first few puzzles they gave me to try, so I knew the answer by previously solving it with the aid of a dictionary (paper copy not online).

Because some of us couldn't work it out for ourselves.

 

[dan-cat]

re is either an abbreviation or a name and therefore is surely not permitted.

Brian

I always took it as the ablative version of the Latin word res

Yes believe it or not, I studied Latin at school. It's a stretch to define it as an English word on it's own. 're' only becomes the ablative version of 'res' when it is used within a Latin phrase. eg. 'In re'. The ablative being by,with or from the word being referenced.

 

[Rabbie]

I always took it as the ablative version of the Latin word res

Yes believe it or not, I studied Latin at school. It's a stretch to define it as an English word on it's own. 're' only becomes the ablative version of 'res' when it is used within a Latin phrase. eg. 'In re'. The ablative being by,with or from the word being referenced.

The Oxford dictionary gives the etymology as being from the Ablative of 'res' but accepts 're' as now being an english word. English over the years has absorbed many words from different languages including Latin.

 

[Thales750]

The Oxford dictionary gives the etymology as being from the Ablative of 'res' but accepts 're' as now being an english word. English over the years has absorbed many words from different languages including Latin.

And next it will absorb Spanish. It already is actually.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Earlier in the thread, a couple of folks commented on restaurants. I live in New Orleans. We have been visited many times by many critics. Most of them agree that we have world-class food here. Everything from haute cuisine to feeding at the trough.

If any of you are planning to visit New Orleans, drop me a note using my e-mail address The_Doc_Man@yahoo.com and I'll arrange to meet you if it is possible. Wifey LOVES meeting new people and we know where to find all the good restaurants, from po-boys to escargot. (Actually, you can have my share of escargot...)

Food in New Orleans is an adventure best experienced with a guide. But I've eaten in San Antonio. I can't say I was overly impressed with any place - except I was impressed in a negative way by Bill Miller's Barbecue - a chain of the fast-food variety. The grease level of the air inside the place was tangibly different than the outside air. I felt my arteries clogging with cholesterol just by breathing that air. The grease content was so high that I actually felt myself getting ready to heave. Wifey and I bought a souvenir cup for a friend of mine named Bill Miller and left.

 

[Fifty2One]

I found New Orleans to have the same quality of restaurants as Montreal, with the exception of fast food franchises you would be hard pressed to find an eatery that has bad food. I also found the service excellent.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Wifey and I went through Montreal some years ago on a several-day excursion starting from Montreal and ending at Niagara. We enjoyed what we ate pretty much everywhere we went, though some of it was a bit mundane.

You are right about service. And in fact, if you DON'T get a server with an attitude in any New Orleans eatery, you have the right to feel somewhat slighted.

I've never been a fan of gourmet and haute cuisine cooking, but then again, family and mid-scale fare in New Orleans can be an adventure in itself.

To be honest, though, the best Italian food I ever ate wasn't in New Orleans even though we have some world-class joints including Mosca's. It has been too long since we were there, but my wife and I went to Washington D.C. and stayed in Crystal City. On 29th street, we found an incredible set of restaurants. Everything from Chinese to Vietnamese to Italian to Mexican to ... hold on for this one ... Ethiopian-Italian. The straight-up Italian place had a beef marsala that was to die for. But the Ethiopian-Ialian place was good, too. Their middle-African sampler was excellent, ranging from the most delicate sweet curry dishes to some blow-your-lips-off spicy curries. The range and variation in potency gave me a palate palette to remember.

 

[RXX00]

Americans should remember who invented the language in the 1st place.

Speak the Queen's English.




Just joking BTW.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Americans should remember who invented the language in the 1st place.

The Germans? (No, not kidding.)

 

[Brianwarnock]

If anybody "invented" the language it would have been Eve, Adam wouldn't have got a word in.

However I think it just evolved.

Brian

 

[RXX00]

The Germans? (No, not kidding.)

The "English" that the German tribles came up bares no resemblance to the English that the Brits spread around the world but I take your point.

 

[Galaxiom]

The "English" that the German tribles came up bares no resemblance to the English that the Brits spread around the world but I take your point.

"No resemblence" is overstating the case but yes English has changed a lot from its Old German ancestor, through the influence of Norse in the earlier times but mainly through adopting a substantial part of the French vocabulary.

 

[Rich]

The "English" that the German tribles came up bares no resemblance to the English that the Brits spread around the world but I take your point.

Bares, surely not?

 

[Rabbie]

Bares, surely not?

Perhaps the tribes in question were enthusiastic sunbathers

On a more serious note there is an excellent book on the English language calle "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson. Bryson is an american living in England so he is relatively neutral between American and English versions of the language.

 

[Galaxiom]

Bares, surely not?

To be fair "bears no resemblence" and "bares no resemblence" both work, despite the former being the convention.

"bears" in this context means "to hold" while "bares" means "to show"

So long as we don't think of "bears" as Ursus sp. it works for me.

 

[Galaxiom]

Of course, English being what it is, the choice of spelling can be critical.

Anyone else ever wondered why the US Constitution required the Second Amendment to allow them to wear short-sleeved shirts?

 

[ColinEssex]

To be fair "bears no resemblence" and "bares no resemblence" both work, despite the former being the convention.

"bears" in this context means "to hold" while "bares" means "to show"

So long as we don't think of "bears" as Ursus sp. it works for me.

Talking of "bare" - I see Obama and his missus 'chelle are visiting the UK with an entaurage of 1500 hangers on.

She takes the amendment about the right to bare arms to the extreme - does she not posess a dress with sleeves?

Still, at least this time she didn't put her arm round the Queen (God bless her). That caused a big diplomatic incident last time she visited.

Col

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If you allow for linguistic drift and a few phonetic variations, German and English are quite similar, particularly if you list to a Cajun from the Atchafalaya River basin speak English with a French/Spanish/German accent. (Yep, all three cultures have contributed to the Cajun dialect.)

In German, you will use D where in English you would normally use a TH. You would use a B where English would use an F. Dieb = Thief, for example. And of course, during WWII you might have heard a surrendering German soldier say "Schiess! Nicht scheissen!" (Aw shit, don't shoot.) The fact that the phrases retain similarities between their verbs shows that they drifted similarly. Oh, and if I got the verbs backwards in German, the phrase works backwards, too.

Didn't an earlier post demonstrate issues with phonetic spelling and such? Anyway, German bears much greater resemblance to English than, say, Latin and English. Give me gutsy German rather than visceral Latin any time, unless of course we are discussing incantations or certain religious music.