[Ads-l] Facebookery: _townhome_ < "townhouse"

[Jonathan Lighter]

But "Town Home" sounds so much cozier: the heap o' livin' has already been
done for you!

It makes you want to rent or buy. Anyway, the psychology behind it suggests
that the coiner well recognized the difference between "house" and "home,"
and in good huckster fashion he or she was anxious to subvert it.

JL

On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 2:24 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Back in '53, when the difference between _house_ and _home_ was still a
> thing, the title of Adler's book was pointed to as a prime example of the
> proper distinction between the two words. The once-popular saying - by
> Edgar Guest? - "It takes a heap o' living to make a house a home," was also
> used in that losing effort, as was the song, "C'mon-a My House."
>
> But there's no stopping language change, as no less a light than Beowulf
> has observed.
>
> On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 1:08 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > We used to live in a subdivision that included "Townhomes" in its title.
> >
> > Built ca.1983.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 12:14 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > "A House Is Not a Home"
> > > - Polly Adler
> > >
> > > --
> > > -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
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "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
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -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
>



-- 
"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