"until" vs "before" or "to"

[Wilson Gray]

Dern! And I switched from "till," etc. to "of" because I thought that
the *latter* was cool! "Different strokes," to coin a phrase. :-)

-Wilson

On 7/19/07, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "until" vs "before" or "to"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Perhaps he heard "till" in California, thought it was the current American
> usage (which it increasingly is), and, as we suggested earlier, assumed it
> was an abbreviation of "until"--hence the (mis)spelling.  Too bad, because
> it IS cool.
>
> At 11:48 PM 7/18/2007, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> >Subject:      Re: "until" vs "before" or "to"
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Just to add a smidge of data, I have a rather cool Frank Gehry watch
> >(see
> >http://www.fossil.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=18233&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=961&iSubCat=981&iProductID=18233)
> >that gives the time as, e.g., "8 past 10" or "17 til 11" (right now
> >it says "14 til midnight"). It presents it in an emulation of Gehry's
> >handwriting. So it seems that Frank Gehry uses "til." However, though
> >he's originally from Toronto (moved to California at 18), I'm not
> >used to hearing "til" here at all -- "to" is the current local word.
> >(I learned to use "of" when I lived in Boston and stopped just as
> >readily when I moced back to Canada.)
> >
> >James Harbeck.
> >
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> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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