On May 18, 2019, at 05:59, ma...@madra.net wrote: > >> On Saturday, 18 May 2019 00:44:33 UTC+1, Rob 'Commander' Pike wrote: >> jail is a clear improvement over the ludicrous gaol... > > I hadn't actually realised that GAOL vs JAIL was a British vs. US English > distinction. I thought 'Gaol' was just an archaic spelling of 'Jail', as I've > only ever come across it in C19th and earlier literature. Even over this side > of the pond, 'Jail' is used pretty exclusively. Although we mostly call it > 'Prison' :-)
This is OT for the list, but: I think it’s more the latter (an archaism rather than a regional distinction; jail is basically universal here because we started later). We do, however, tend to distinguish somewhat between “jail” and “prison”; the short version is that jail is temporary holding while awaiting trial, while prison is more permanent punitive containment post-sentencing. I’m not sure if that distinction exists as much overseas, and in colloquial US English, saying that someone is “in jail” is often used for both situations (I, myself, enjoy our more colorful slang such as “in the pokey” or “up the river”). - Dave -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/golang-nuts/A89B99F0-1753-4D8F-81FE-9A6C26A2FDC9%40gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
