Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 07:37:03 -0700

From: Bruce Gelder bgelder[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CAMEL.SIM.ES.COM

Subject: Re: "different than"



A general query:

Can anyone provide a chronology of "different than" in American English?

I have observed it to be highly geographical and chronological: few

over 50, at least in the mid-Atlantic, and fewer Southerners yet would

say anything but "different from," on the model of the verbal expression

"this differs from that."

I thought James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (1950?)

contained the earliest printed mention of "different than" but later

found an earlier work, whose name I can't remember.

Can anyone shed some light? --Cathy Bodin cbodin[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msmary.edu



"Different than" has been in print fairly widely throughout the U.S. and

in Britain since either the 17th century or the 18th century, and self-

proclaimed usage experts have been condemning it ever since. I don't have

any citations with me right now, but I'll try to dig some up in the next

day or so, unless other people beat me to it.



Bruce Gelder

bgelder[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]camel.sim.es.com