Temperature Stated As a "Negative"

[M Covarrubias]

all of my midwestern life i've switched between three options:

minus-#
negative-#
#-below

i think i say 'minus-#' most often. but i guess i haven't counted.

michael


On Jan 15, 2009, at 2:09 PM, Barbara Need wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Temperature Stated As a "Negative"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> What is correct? Minus? Negative five sounds OK to me--but I've lived
> in the Midwest much of my life.
>
> Barbara
>
> Barbara Need
>
> On 15 Jan 2009, at 12:24 PM, Doug Harris wrote:
>
>> I've heard this a couple of times recently, once from someone in
>> Nebraska, once from a CNN
>> presenter who _may_ have been in or from the midwest:
>> A below-zero Fahrenheit temperature reported as, say, _negative 15_.
>> I tried to convince my Nebraska friend (who's also lived in Iowa and
>> ND) that that terminology
>> isn't correct, but she's continued using it.
>> Is that phrasing as uncommon as I suspect? Is it specific to a
>> certain geography?
>> dh
>
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