English can be wielded with great precision; but it, and American English in particular, often is not. The term 'ice tea' has now, for example, largely supplanted 'iced tea' among the subliterate; etc., etc., ad nauseam.
When punched cards were in wide use 'punch cards' was avoided, but those who wish to use 'punch cards' are of course free to do so, as I am free to deprecate it. --jg On 7/30/12, zMan <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:27 AM, Paul Gilmartin > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Is motor oil not "motor oil" until it's installed in a motor? >> Is cat food not "cat food" until ...? > > > cf. "baby oil" vs. "whale oil" ... when you get right down to it, English > isn't much of a language. > -- > zMan -- "I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it" > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
