A verbed noun
sagehen
sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM
Sun Mar 26 00:36:09 UTC 2006
>The signs may have been there a while, but I just noticed
>them. Along the interstate highways near Atlanta, motorists
>are advised, "Enter and exit the HOV lane only at dashed
>stripes."
>
>I wonder what percentage of the public will even know what a
>dash IS, much less derive from the posted instruction (with
>its odd participle) the image of a broken line, since solid
>dashes are the default on current word-processing programs,
>and they are what appear in print (the "broken" double-
>hyphen dash being relegated to wherever all the typewriters
>now live in retirement).
>
>--Charlie
~~~~~~~~~
Huh? Dunno about the rest of the public, but "dashed" is no problem for
me, "HOV," OTOH, is a total mystery!
AM
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
W stands for >:< War ____Waste___Wiretaps____Witchhunts >:<
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list