The earth v. Earth (UNCLASSIFIED)

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Thu Aug 9 13:18:16 UTC 2007


Me too, although "a tumor" (more generablly "countable," of course) sometimes replaced "a cancer"--the word "cancer" being almost too horrible to utter.

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 02:13:45 -0700
>From: Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: The earth v. Earth (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
>I grew up hearing Southerners say "a cancer"; on the other hand, I heard "the headache," rather than "a headache."
>
>  Margaret Lee

>
>"Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
>
>I've heard folks in the rural South referring to having "the cancer" instead of what seems to me to be standard usage "cancer".

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