Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 12:23:53 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: julian@current1.whistle.com (Julian Elischer) Cc: chuckr@glue.umd.edu, freebsd-current@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: new gcc Message-ID: <199608261923.MAA23022@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95.960826111331.925C-100000@current1.whistle.com> from "Julian Elischer" at Aug 26, 96 11:17:35 am
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> Maybe it did happen momentarily and you missed it? > > seriously I laugh so much about the differnce in the way > Americans use the word "momentarily" from the way it is used > in OZ (and UK too I believe) > > for the Americans thinking > "Huh?" > We use the word Momentarily to mean "FOR a moment" , not "In a moment" > so now interpret "The train will be leaving momentarily" > and "Gcc2.7 will be implimented momentarily" in this new light and see > why it breaks me up so much.. Americans use "momentarily" that way as well; we just derive it from context. It is not nearly so funny as the misuse of "moot". Everyone says "it's a moot point" to mean "it's not worthy of discussion" when they are trying to sound intellectual. Look it up -- "moot" means "subject to discussion". There are lots of examples where context modifies of English words in "American English". Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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