second thoughts on Nkinis

[Wilson Gray]

On Dec 25, 2004, at 1:07 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: second thoughts on Nkinis
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> On Dec 24, 2004, at 12:12 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> On Dec 23, 2004, at 11:19 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>>
>>> ...this is, if anything, even harder to imagine.  but, hey, 2 mills
>>
>> "Mill" is the local St. Louis term for what is officially a "Missouri
>> sales-tax token," originally made of some metal [zinc?] and later of
>> plastic in red and green denominations. Is the term in use elsewhere?
>
> a mill is 1/1000 of a dollar, 1/10 of a cent.  so far as i know, "mill"
> is in all american dictionaries.
>
> property tax rates are frequently specified in mills, and so are
> sometimes called "millage rates", or just "millages".
>
> arnold
>

I was mildly surprised to see the word used in the (presumably)
everyday speech of someone without the everyday need to discuss
Missouri sales-tax tokens. Thanks for the information.

-Wilson