At 15:58 11/12/2000 -0500, Aaron Johnson wrote:
>Actually in some context rebate will do.
>
>One meaning of rebate is:
>Middle English rabet, from Old French rabat:
>recess in a wall, act of beating down,
>from rabattre,
>to beat down again;
>
>Is rebate in the sense of the word that the amount is reduced an American
>thing?
I don't think so. Both usages come from the French rabat/rabattre/rabaisser
(rabattre and rabaisser have somewhat branched in French but they were the
same back then). Rabaisser has the amount reduced meaning (amongst others)
while rabattre is what you do when you bring something to a specific place
using various techniques. You would rabattre (rebate) a prey to where it
might be caught (eg by having lots of advertising people beating drums in
the forest so that you run away to the place where the marketing people are
ambushed to sell something to you).
-- robin b.
After all, what is your hosts' purpose in having a party? Surely not for
you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they'd have simply
sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.
