abide = 'abate'

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Laura Slot appears to be a native speaker of Dutch, so it may just be
> a slip. Â But it's interesting nonetheless.

Thanks for opening the door, John! I've come across numerous of <har!
har!> examples that I haven't posted because the writers, upon closer
inspection, have turned out not to be native-speakers.

Or should that be, "have not turned out to be native-speakers"? Or
"have turned out to not be native-speakers"? Or "have turned out to be
not natives speakers"?

Meh. What does it matter? The meaning - the only matter of consequence
- is clear, in every case. All else is style.

--
-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

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