End of ADS-L Digest - 22 Feb 1995 to 23 Feb 1995

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There are 13 messages totalling 295 lines in this issue.



Topics of the day:



 1. buck and a half (3)

 2. DARE Queries in NADS 27.1

 3. "different than"

 4. "little" (2)

 5. you guys

 6. Looking for some useful arguments (2)

 7. the mail & thanks; -left

 8. Per Judge Ito -- 60 major dialects of Spanish

 9. Romance Plurals



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Date:  Thu, 23 Feb 1995 22:58:36 -0600

From:  Frank Mark R <mrf546t[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]NIC.SMSU.EDU>

Subject: Re: buck and a half



On Thu, 23 Feb 1995, Larry Horn wrote

 There's no restriction here to "a buck ___", and of course the

> contexts aren't metaphorical in the same sense as weight, batting average,

> time, or distance to the pin. Rather, there seems to be the tendency to

 pretend

> you're talking peanuts as you toss those sums around. (I suspect a nickel bag

> can also bring or cost $500 in the right context.)

>

> Larry

>

> QUIT

>



I think the idea of talking peanuts also covers examples I've heard

concerning prison sentences: a five year term called a nickel, a ten year

term called a dime. is there a history in English of the dimunuation of

amount/time?



--Mark Frank