The earth v. Earth (UNCLASSIFIED)

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Wed Aug 8 16:59:42 UTC 2007


Popularized by John Wayne.  See HDAS.

  JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: The earth v. Earth (UNCLASSIFIED)
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At 10:28 AM -0500 8/8/07, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>I've heard folks in the rural South referring to having "the cancer"
>instead of what seems to me to be standard usage "cancer".

In the urban North it may not be "the cancer" but it's often "the big C".

LH

>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society
>> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Doug Harris
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2007 9:08 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: The earth v. Earth
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Doug Harris
>> Subject: Re: The earth v. Earth
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----------------
>>
>> On a _much_ smaller scale (but similarly curious,
>> language-wise), is the British practice of referring to
>> certain countries with the 'the' article preceding their
>> name. To wit, The Gambia, The Lebanon.
>> I believe I know the historic logic for this, but there was a
>> similar logic for their use of the 'aeroplane / aeroport'
>> spellings, which The Sunday Telegraph (and others) persisted
>> in using until at least the 1980's. Wisely, though, albeit
>> with much kicking and screaming, I imagine, the latter paper
>> seems to have come 'round to using 'airport' _except_ when
>> referring to the French versions of places where aero...
>> whoops, airplanes land.
>> (the other) doug
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm pretty sure - though I wouldn't bet money on it - that,
>> back in the '40's and '50's - the earth was referred to as
>> "_the_ earth." More recently, it seems to me, "the earth" has
>> been replaced by "Earth."
>> Here's an instance that's neither "the earth" nor "Earth." It
>> could be a simple typo, however.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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