Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)

[Baker, John]

        Well, some other sources do support the Wikipedia theory, e.g.,
the Navy, http://www.history.navy.mil/trivia/triv4-5m.htm.

        Historical reasons aside, there does seem to be a pattern:  a
lieutenant outranks a sergeant major, a lieutenant colonel outranks a
major, and a lieutenant general outranks a major general.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Wilson Gray
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 10:34 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)

"Skeptical"? How can this be? Wikipedia, that vaunted repository of all
human knowledge ;-), believes it. However, I read it somewhere else
maybe fifty years ago and the story wasn't new, then. And, as we know,
stories that are around long enough tend to become regarded as "true."

In other words, I'm not quite skeptical, but I don't think that this
story is necessarily true, either.

-Wilson

On 3/27/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
>
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> I'm skeptical.
>
>   JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> Know why a major general is outranked by a lieutenant general, though
> a major outranks a lieutenant? Supposedly, the reason is that a major
> general was originally a sergeant-major general and lieutenants
> outrank sergeants.
>
> -Wilson
>

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