Prom time . . . .

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue May 2 18:14:01 UTC 2006


At 3:14 PM -0200 5/2/06, Charles Doyle wrote:
>Although HOMECOMING usually denotes a series of occasions
>(parade, pep rally, football game, dance, etc.)--whereas (as
>Arnold remarks) PROM refers to a "specific event" (thence
>some of its oddity to superannuated ears).

Not at my kids' high school, or I imagine a lot of others.
"Homecoming" as in "attend Homecoming", "who are you going to
Homecoming with?", etc. (with a capital, since it is a name), refers
to a dance.  There's a homecoming game as well, but Homecoming is a
specific event, like prom (or is that Prom?).

>Larry, that sentence-initial, sans-negative "anymore" sounds
>REALLY odd to me!

Work on it, Charlie!

Larry

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list