'albeit'

[Brian M. Scott]

On 2 Jul 2001, at 14:12, Larry Trask wrote:

> As recently as ten years ago, I think, 'albeit' was as dead as a
> doornail in English.  I never encountered it at all except in
> texts written a long time ago.

I'm 53, and I've been using it all my life.  It's true that I originally
acquired it from reading and pronounced it to myself as 'all-bite', but I
straightened that out before I was 12.  I've always considered it a
perfectly normal word in a formal register, both in writing and in
speech.

> Sorry, folks.  I'm afraid that I, tedious old fart that I am,
> still find 'albeit' unspeakably pretentious.

How very odd; it would never even have occurred to me that anyone
might find it so.  (I shan't lose any sleep over it in any case!)

Brian M. Scott