[Ads-l] prom; lodge

[Stanton McCandlish]

Thinking back to my own high-school experience (mid-1980s), it seems to me
that "prom" without "the" referred to the social process, if you will,
including all the ritual leading up to it: "Have you asked anyone to prom
yet?", and is clearly derived from adjectival use ("I still need to pick
out a prom dress")l; meanwhile, "the prom" referred to the dance-party
event itself ("We made out in the car on the way to the prom"). But I might
be overthinking it; maybe it was simply in the losing-its-"the" stage in
that time span, without actually much rhyme or reason to when "the" was
present. And it's certainly not as clear-cut a distinction as, say, "I like
to party" versus "I'm going to be late to the party".


On Sat, Jun 22, 2024 at 4:59 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> I can imagine “We can’t skip Pride”.
>
> As in
>
> “We had already postponed it once, and we definitely want to do something,
> because in our mind you just can't skip Pride for a year,…”
>
> "I know I know. I still haven't finished the Valentine's Day one BUT! The
> window is closing to make the pride event and I can't skip pride”
>
> (A recurring event)
>
> Not that different from “can’t skip commencement/graduation/homecoming…”
>
> But yes, it was “the prom” for me, back in another millennium.
>
> LH
>
> > On Jun 22, 2024, at 4:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > In my day, when the earth's crust had recently cooled, we teens spoke of
> > going to "the prom."  Years later, I heard a new crop of teens talk about
> > going to "prom," suddenly a mass noun.
> >
> > In the July, 1960, issue of _Walt Disney's Comics and Stories_, one of
> > Donald Duck's nephews says "But tonight's Lodge Night at the Junior
> > Woodchucks!" And the next one says "We can't skip lodge!"
> >
> > Another mass noun that even now strikes me as odd. (I'd say "We can't
> skip
> > Lodge Night!")   Both "prom" and "lodge" designate familiar, recurring
> > events.  Are there other exx. of this grammatical quirk?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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