From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Tue Mar 23 1999 - 07:30:05 MST
Today's AWAD (possessive case)
;)
apostrophe (uh-POS-truh-fee) noun
The superscript sign (') used to indicate the omission of a letter
or letters from a word, the possessive case, and the plurals of
numbers, letters, and abbreviations.
[French, from Late Latin apostrophus, from Greek apostrophos, from
apostrephein, to turn away : apo-, + strephein, to turn.]
apostrophe (uh-POS-truh-fee) noun
The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a
personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course
of a speech or composition.
[Late Latin apostrophe, from Greek, from apostrephein, to turn
away.]
"`It seems that no one is certain anymore where to put an
apostrophe,' he says. `I call this syndrome apostrophobia.'
Apostrophes (which are airborne commas) are used to indicate the
omission of a letter or letters from a word or phrase ..."
Patricia Corrigan, Punctuation Falls on Very Hard Time's, St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, 30 Sep 1995.
"As an aside, it is interesting to consider a meteorological
apostrophe delivered by one of the attendants as Cleopatra prepares
to place the serpent on her breast: Dissolve, thick cloud, and
rain, that I may say The gods themselves do weep."
McIntosh, William A., The serpent that bites its own tail: a
quattrocento birth-death-rebirth dialectic., Parabola, 1 Nov 1998.
This week's theme: words about punctuation and diacritics.
Well, we goofed. What can I say, even we make mistakes. (-;
In yesterday's posting the apostrophe was punctuation non grata.
Thanks to all 39571 who wrote to point it out. -Anu
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The heart is wiser than the intellect. -Josiah Holland (1819-1881)
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