Release(d?)

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

in reply to <pmcgraw at linfield.edu>:

I prefer RELEASED TIME and RELEASED SPACE. RELEASE TIME sounds to me like it
means 'time when the baloons (or whatever) will be released'. RELEASE SPACE
doesn't compute for me at all. I associate RELEASED TIME with an underlying
[TIME which has been RELEASED]", so a PPart marker is necessary for me.
RELEASED SPACE works the same way for me.

The final stop does of course get deleted in pronunciation, but in all but
the most informal writing, one rarely indicates pronunciation, except in a
few fixed items such as DON'T--and then usually an apostrophe is used. I
often see HANDICAP PARKING on parking-lot signs, which strikes me as a
"mistake."

I'm not sure that such variant spellings are increasing--how could one
possibly know? My memory is that Tom Cresswell was amused by such omissions
thirty years ago, and that we have had several discussions of the lost PPart
-ED on ADSL, but I could be wrong. A great many things amused Tom Cresswell.
I miss his wisdom greatly.