"until" vs "before" or "to" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I prefer Jim's version. :-)

-Wilson

On 7/19/07, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "until" vs "before" or "to" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
>
>
> > 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=1
> 8233&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.)
> >
> If Gehry uses "until", the watch designers may have substituted "til"
> for reasons of space.
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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