First names (was: SIGNIFICANT OTHER)

[Peter A. McGraw]

So are Ph.D.s, which includes a lot of us on this list.  But I'd venture to
say that when we're sick, most of us speak of "going to the doctor" without
the slightest fear that anyone will think we're going to see another Ph.D.
about our flu, broken leg, etc.  Saying "doctors and dentists" seems to me
to make it crystal clear that the colloquial sense of "doctor"
('physician') is meant rather than the technical sense ('someone with any
doctoral degree').

Peter

--On Friday, April 12, 2002 4:40 PM -0400 Robert Fitzke
<fitzke at MICHCOM.NET> wrote:

> (1) dentists ARE doctors (the usage is almost universal, but is simply
> misleading)---the phrase should probably be dentists and physicians;



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu