Philippe Verdy scripsit:
Didn't know that. Is this a very recent use?
It's been used as an English verb, adjective, and noun for 30-40 years
and perhaps much longer: see below.
In France, I think that RSVP was introduced and widely used at end of
telegraphic messages (that contained lots of
on 2004-12-11 09:21 John Cowan wrote:
It's been used as an English verb, adjective, and noun for 30-40 years
and perhaps much longer: see below.
Longer. I can attest from my youth in the 1950s that my parents
considered it ordinary English usage, and in fact knew of its origin.
--
Curtis Clark
John wrote:
As far as I know, they were first used in formal invitations (to
weddings,
funerals, dances, etc.) in the corner of the card, as both shorter and
more fancy than the older phrase The favor of your reply is
requested.
This is correct. The practice dates from the end of the nineteenth
From: Séamas Ó Brógáin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
John wrote:
As far as I know, they were first used in formal invitations (to
weddings,
funerals, dances, etc.) in the corner of the card, as both shorter and
more fancy than the older phrase The favor of your reply is requested.
This is correct. The
At 01:12 +0100 2004-12-12, Philippe Verdy wrote:
I would not be surprised if this acronym was defined in some
internationally accepted set of abbreviations used by telegraphists,
so that their clients became exposed to these acronyms when reading
telegrams received from their local post office
From: Michael Everson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Nonsense. You might as well try to explain SPQR on the same basis.
I won't. I know that SPQR was used on architectural constructions as a
symbol of the Roman Empire, and it was a wellknown acronym of a Latin
expression.
It largely predates the invention
Philippe,
RSVP is a French acronym for Répondez, s'il vous plait.
Yes, we know that.
But it is also a reanalyzed English verb which means
reply to a message (or invitation).
That it has been morphological reanalyzed is demonstrated by the
fact that it takes regular English verb endings, as
From: Kenneth Whistler [EMAIL PROTECTED]
That it has been morphological reanalyzed is demonstrated by the
fact that it takes regular English verb endings, as in:
I RSVPed yesterday, right after I got the email.
As I said, it is now a bona fide English verb, and most
English speakers will treat it
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