Despite the Kipling comeback,

[Joel S. Berson]

Are ships good examples of the triumph of the gray squirrel ("lay)
over the red ("lie")?  We have in "lay, v.1", "lay up" "7. To put
away (a ship) in dock or some other place of safety", a specialized
use of "lay".  Perhaps the 1917 quote means only that the steamer was
at the pier.

Better might be utterances like "I am laying on the bed" vs. "I am
lying on the bed."

Joel

At 6/4/2012 06:13 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>1895
>the schooner ... _laid at_ this dock
>
>1917
>a steamer ... _lying at_ a pier
>
>
>_lay_ has been steady kicking _lie_'s ass, over the dekkids.
>--
>-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

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