I will refrain from pouncing on Bill Fairchild for the redundancy of "from thence". Doh! ;-)
> Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 20:35:48 +0000 > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: ATTACH > To: [email protected] > > Many repliers have emphasized clarity and precision. Although Mr. Gilmore's > word choice is sometimes arcane and obscure, nevertheless his words under > attack were not "big" or "complex" words; e.g., "ætat", having only five > letters, cannot possibly be characterized as "big", and its meaning is > instantly obvious given a knowledge of Latin roots, as was "lacunae", also > not a "big" word. Nor did he describe the OP as "naïve." He said that the OP > was "a naïf." These two words are not synonymous. Naïve is an adjective and > naïf is a noun, as he used it. If you take Mr. Gilmore to task for lack of > clarity and precision, then please be sure that your post is just as clear > and precise as you wish his had been. Were it not for Mr. Gilmore's > predilection for precise meanings, I would still be ignorant of the words > "antipode" and "boustrophedon" (the latter of which is big, complex, and > arcane, but amazingly precise). As I also do not have an OED on my shelf, he > often drives me h! > appily to an online English dictionary, into a word's etymology, and from > thence to further French, Greek, Italian, or even Icelandic dabbling. > > Bill Fairchild > Rocket Software > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
