OT: NZ use of "down to"

[Amy West]

On 5/4/12 1:37 PM, Amy West wrote:
> While I'm pestering the list. . .
>
> In a New Zealand news article this use of "down to" struck me as
> interesting:
>
> Elizabeth Hopper said it was down to her late husband Keith Hopper
> that the Bible was found.
>
> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10803551
>
> While Woo State has the 2 extant vols of HDAS, they don't have a New
> Zealand dicty that I can check.
>
> ---Amy West
But they do have the OED, which I thought of checking once I got home,
and there it is, sense 28b of down, adv.: "to be attributable to."

Sigh. Standard British English use, evidently.

Sorry: I'll check before I mail in the future.

---Amy West

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