"Congress" = 'House of Representatives'?

[Jonathan Lighter]

FWIW, I was in high school before I caught on that "Congress" was not an exact synonym for "H. of R."  This must have been true for millions of us ignoramuses since whenever.

  Because of "Congressman" vs. "Senator."

  I also used to think "sibling" meant "childhood peer" rather than bro or sis.

  JL

Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Dave Wilton
Subject: Re: "Congress" = 'House of Representatives'?
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Just Google the phrase "congress and the senate" and you get lots of
examples.

Similarly, taking your example and Googling "435 members of Congress" turns
up plenty of examples too.

--Dave Wilton
dave at wilton.net


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Laurence Horn
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 11:52 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Congress" = 'House of Representatives'?

For a query from a journalist, does anyone have some clear examples
of the use of "Congress" to refer specifically to the House of
Representatives, excluding the Senate? This would of course parallel
the semantic narrowing of "Congressman" over a century ago:

1888 BRYCE Amer. Commw. I. xiv. 197 note, The term 'Congressman' is
commonly used to describe a member of the House of Representatives,
though of course it ought to include senators also.
[OED, s.v. "congressman"]

Partial evidence for the shift would be cases of "(in the) Congress
or (the) Senate", but these could conceivably be referring to "either
the Congress (as a whole) or the Senate specifically", such as a web
site providing a "Sample Letter to Congress or Senate". More
unambiguous would be a reference to a bill having to pass (both)
Congress and Senate, or even to candidates for Congress or Senate.
Or to the 100 members of the Senate and the 435 members of Congress.
Ah, here's one:

Citizen journalists have now investigated and submitted information
on all 435 members of Congress!

www.sunlightlabs.com/research/familybusiness/

LH

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