verse = compete vs. (1984)

[Chris Waigl]

Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

>for what it's worth, NSOED has the abbreviation as "vs.", with a
>period at the end, which in british style usually means that letters
>following the final letter of the abbreviation have been omitted (cf.
>british "Mr" and "Dr").
>
>
I found that intriguing because I've never seen "vs." from British
sources that are consistent about the punctuation of abbreviations. So I
looked it up, too. In my edition of NSOED (1993), the entry on /versus/
ends (omitting italics):

----
Esp. in legal or sporting contexts. Abbrev. v., vs.
----

It's entirely unclear if they mean that "vs" should receive a period,
though, because all entries in NSOED end with a period.

Chris Waigl