till

[Lynn C. Hattendorf Westney]

Until is the correct form.

A society is generally as lax as its language.

Lynn C. Hattendorf Westney, Associate Professor,
Assistant Reference Librarian
Coordinator of Reference Collection Development
Coordinator of CRRC: Career and Resume Resources Collection

The University of Illinois at Chicago  (UIC)
The Richard J. Daley Library (MC/234) Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680-8198 USA
Lynn's Office: 312-996-9110 (bounces back to Reference after 4 rings)
Reference Department: 312-996-2728
FAX: 312-413-0424



On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> >The editor insists on changing it to
> >"til" or "'til" (so far she hasn't added the apostrophe, but I suspect she
> >will).  I see "till" all the time in our field, esp. with ref. to the time
> >expression, which has become a frozen frame, it seems to me.  Does anyone
> >not agree with me on this??
>
> I think the editor needs to look for a different line of work if she
> persists in this.
>
> I quote the M-W usage dictionary (which I like, maybe because it agrees
> with me a lot) (1989; p. 908):
>
> <<What _'til_ is, unarguably, is a variant spelling of _till_ used by
> writers who do not know that _till_ is a complete, unabbreviated word in
> its own right. ....
>
> <<... if you are writing for publication, you will do well to spell it
> _till_.>>
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>