the then, the late, and in the room of (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Back during the Carter administration when all the "How to Speak
Southern" books were so popular, I remember a discussion of names for
the Civil War.

Generally called "The Civil War"
In the South, called "The War Between the States"
In the deep South, called "The War of Northern Aggression"
In parts of South Carolina, "The Late Unpleasantness"

>
> "Late" has always been very much alive and kicking, IME. I don't find
> anything interesting in the examples suggested.
>
> However, that someone writing *formally* in *1855* should be using
> "_the *then*_ representatives" *is*, to *me*, worthy of note, because
> I had *long* - my entire literate life, almost - labored under the
> misprehapprehension that this particular syntactic structure was
> something introduced a couple of dekkids or so ago by people too
> can't-be-bothered to write "Those who were the representatives at that
> time" or something similar.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 1:48 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net>
wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-------------
> ----------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: the then, the late, and in the room of
> >
---------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
> >
> > At 2/10/2010 12:17 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> >>Victor quotes
> >>
> >>"... _the then_ representatives ..."
> >>
> >>from1855. Amazing! Had anybody asked me, I would have WAG-ed _the
> >>then_ from more like 1965! Youneverknow!
> >
> > In the previous century, one might have read "the late
> > representatives ...", even tough they were still alive.  (That is,
> > "late" meaning "former".)  Or "in the room of the late
representative
> > ...", but not meaning the new one took the old one's office!
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> ---
> 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.
> -Mark Twain
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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