countdown was: "As If"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 21, 2005, at 5:51 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

>
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: countdown  was: "As If"
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>>>
>>> Robert Heinlein's 1952 novel "The Rolling Stones" calls it a "count
>>> off":
>>
>> Which also is of military origin.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>  Isn't the standard military "count off" where a bunch of soldiers
> enumerate themselves? and the numbers go in increasing order?

Yes.

>
> Is there a military count off where the enumeration goes downwards and
> ends at zero?

No.

My reference was to the term itself, not to possible implementations of
it.

carry on.

-Wilson Gray