The earth v. Earth (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Montgomery Michael]

Look them up in DARE for beaucoups of citations.

Michael

--- Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET> wrote:

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> Poster:       Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
> Subject:      Re: The earth v. Earth (UNCLASSIFIED)
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>
> "The hippoes"?
> "The mulligrubs"?
> I can imagine the former having something to do with
> being, simultaneously, heightiness challenged and
> broadily enhanced.
> I'm stumped by mulligrubs, though. The mind boggles!
> (the other) doug
>
>
> In the South Midland names of diseases and illnesses
> are often preceded by the definite article.  "The
> cancer" is certainly known, but I think "the sugar"
> =
> "diabetes" would be far more common.  My favorites
> are
> "the hippoes" and "the mulligrubs."  I've also heard
> "the typhoid," etc.  "The measles" is ubiquitous,
> but
> I suspect this may have a much broader regional
> distribution.  We eagerly await DARE V for a
> splendiferous display of definite article usage.
>
> "The" with diseases is definitely a Scotch-Irish
> inheritance.  Check out _the_ def. art. sense 4 in
> the
> Scottish National Dictionary.  This can be found
> on-line at the wonderful Dictionary of the Scots
> Language website, which incorporates both the SND
> and
> the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue.  This
> philological resource that approaches the magnitude
> of
> the OED is available free at www.dsl.ac.uk.  I don't
> think that it has gotten enough publicity on this
> side
> of the water, though, so I'm blowing the bugle to
> consult it, if ADSers will pardon me.
>
> Michael
>
> > >
> > >I've heard folks in the rural South referring to
> > having "the cancer"
> > >instead of what seems to me to be standard usage
> > "cancer".
> >
> > In the urban North it may not be "the cancer" but
> > it's often "the big C".
> >
> > LH
>
>
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