Captured Same

[Rick Barr]

Here's Bryan A. Garner (in *Garner's Modern America Usage*):
"same. [...] As a pronoun. This usage, common exemplified in the
phrase *acknowledging
same*, is a primary symptom of legalese. [...] [T]he phrase is rendered
sometimes with the definite article, sometimes without. [...] Unfortunately,
the pretentious construction has spread to general writing [...]. [...] In
fact, when used as a pronoun, *same* is even less precise than *it*
(transparently
singular) or *they* (transparently plural). *Same* can be either and is
therefore often unclear."

And here's the more latitudinarian MWEU:
http://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&lpg=PP1&dq=merriam%20webster's%20usage&pg=PA825#v=onepage&q&f=false

F.

On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Captured Same
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In a WWII-era Tom and Jerry cartoon (I think it's called "Yankee Doodle
> Mouse," but I'm too lazy to go downstairs and find the DVD it's on and
> check), at one point Jerry sends a telegram to his commanders to report
> that
> his mission was accomplished. The wording went something like: "Found enemy
> cat, captured same." I wondered if this was some kind of diction of a
> bygone
> era, with "same" used where I'd've said "it". But here's a headline from
> the
> website for Aviation Week, dated Sept. 23, 2008:
>
> Sighted Self-Propelled Semi-Submersible Drug Runner, Captured Same
>
> http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3abc8e37a0-55ce-4815-8977-ce698258efb5&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest
>
> So is this a military thing instead? Why use "same", when "it" (or "him" or
> "her") does the same job in an unstressed pronoun with (regarding
> telegrams)
> fewer letters?
>
> Neal Whitman
> Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
> Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
>
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