[Ads-l] locomotives as female

[Jonathan Lighter]

Could you give the titles of some of those movies, Larry?

I've often wondered just how true that claim was.

BTW, engineer George Alley, in "The Wreck on the C&O Road"  (ca1895)  says,
"I want to die with the engine I love,/ One hundred and forty-three."

JL


JL



On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 10:40 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: locomotives as female
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Right, you just have to make sure it's not a locomotif.
>
> (Of course the younger generations haven't been raised on all those old =
> movies in which love scenes pan to shots of trains entering tunnels.)=20
>
> LH
>
> > On Apr 17, 2015, at 11:19 AM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM> =
> wrote:
> >=20
> > My nephew, who is a great train buff, the other day referred to a
> > locomotive as "her."   I asked about the gender, and he said it's
> > conventional to refer to locomotives as feminine.
> >=20
> > New one for me.
> >=20
> > Herb
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.americandialect.=
> org&d=3DAwIBaQ&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsS=
> xPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3D6Q-FGDJbyvUiTHu4rn9ypnk_j9QoowM6JqVHH1aFUv0&s=3DASBhwP=
> LPJEsHAddDAdrb40ks2269RERPyr_7twbWqx8&e=3D=20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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