[Ads-l] Heard: "that=?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=99s=22_?=< _whose_

[Brian Hitchcock]

Not at all surprising, considering that for a long time (perhaps since time immemorial—maybe some of you ace antedaters can clarify how long) the word "that" has been in use to refer to animate, sentient beings;  even humans.  

To me, the surprising thing is that "thats" is not more common.

"You're the one that I Love"  --- Grease
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oKPYe53h78

"the one that I love", "the one whom I love"  -- Google ngrams
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=the+one+that+I+love%2C+the+one+who+I+love%2C+the+one+whom+I+love&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cthe%20one%20that%20I%20love%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cthe%20one%20whom%20I%20love%3B%2Cc0

Of course, the "Who's on first" routine just wouldn't work the same as "that's on first".
Yeah, I know, "that's" isn't "thats", but that's that thought that I thought  that time. (So it's a thought thats time has come.)

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