Date: Sat, 20 Jan 1996 17:04:15 -0800

From: Dan Moonhawk Alford dalford[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]S1.CSUHAYWARD.EDU

Subject: Re: X come Y



On Fri, 19 Jan 1996, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:



Twice recently on email lists, I have seen the construction "X come Y"

where I would have expected "X cum Y." The most recent example comes from

Anglican: "the simple Galilean handyman come preacher." When I queried

the first author about his use of "come" instead of "cum" he said that he

thought that "cum" triggered sexual connotations (ejaculate) that the

spelling "come" did not and that he used the spelling "come" for that

reason. (I think the author was a Canadian--I'll check my files to be

sure.)



The second author (of the above example) is an Anglican priest in

Australia. I have queried him, but have not had a response yet.



I have 2 questions:



1. Is this apparent Anglicization usual and customary? I don't recall

seeing it beore seeing these two examples.



2. Is the Anglicization widespread through the English-speaking world?



or 3. Is it possible that the spelling 'come' is a tortured attempt to

come to grips with a medium which by its nature does not allow us to spell

'cum' in ITALICS?!! I guess people could still do _cum_.