Another one bites the dust?

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:17 PM -0400 9/12/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>I've read and occasionally heard "datum" far more often than I've read
>or heard "criterion." In fact, in my experience, "criterion" is
>practically extinct in non-academic speech.
>
>-Wilson

Fortunately, it will be preserved in these parts, if only because the
unique New Haven movie theater (the one that shows the "art films",
as opposed to the multiplexes on the highways that show everything
else) is the Criterion.  Of course, movie theaters have long been a
force for preservation of good old words and names.  (Cf. the Bijou,
the Roxy, the Odeon, the Lyric, the Majestic,...)

LH

>
>On 9/12/07, James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Another one bites the dust?
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Data - datum: who ever says "a datum"; rather, "a
>>  piece of data" or even "a piece of information".
>>  Commonly "This data...", sometimes "these data...",
>>  almost never "this datum...".  The only case I am
>>  familiar with where 'datum' is used regularly is in
>>  reference to elevations: "What is the datum for this
>>  map?", i.e., what is the base or reference elevation.
>>
>>
>>  --- "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
>>
>>  > I've often heard "a phenomena" and "a criteria,"
>>  > and last night on the news someone spoke of "a
>>  > paparazzi." We deal here with a tendency (not a law,
>>  > though, of course) to shift the plural to the
>>  > singular. I've noticed many more examples over the
>>  > years, but they don't come to mind at the moment.
>>  > Maybe it's time to compile them.
>>  >
>>  > Gerald Cohen
>>  >
>>  > > ----------
>>  > > From:         American Dialect Society on behalf
>>  > of Benjamin Barrett
>>  > > Reply To:     American Dialect Society
>>  > > Sent:         Wednesday, September 5, 2007 11:36
>>  > PM
>>  > > To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  > > Subject:           Re: Another one bites the dust?
>>  > >
>>  > > My chiropractor says that as well. My real estate
>>  > agent says "an
>>  > > addenda". I know that my real estate agent knows
>>  > the difference; surely
>>  > > my chiropractor does as well. BB
>>  > >
>>  > > Wilson Gray wrote:
>>  > > > Heard on CSI:
>>  > > >
>>  > > > [Holding up a bone]: "Looks like a human
>>  > _vertebrae_."
>>  > > >
>>  > >
>>  > >
>>  >
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > > The American Dialect Society -
>>  > http://www.americandialect.org
>>  > >
>>  > >
>>  >
>>  >
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > The American Dialect Society -
>>  > http://www.americandialect.org
>>  >
>>
>>
>>  James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
>>  South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
>>  jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
>>                                 |or slowly and cautiously.
>>
>>
>>
>>____________________________________________________________________________________
>>  Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the
>>hottest shows on Yahoo! TV.
>>  http://tv.yahoo.com/
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  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

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