A little humor does one well. Virg On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 18:22:38 GMT "Jeff Scott" <jscott.pi...@juno.com> writes: > > > -- larry flesner <fles...@midwest.net> wrote: > > > >Weather.COM 10 day forcast for Mt. Vernon Ill. > > > >Please don't tell me it ain't so! > >Daniel R. Heath > >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > > And they are forcasting winds at 5mph right down the long runway!!! > Let's hope they know what they are talking about. I'll be waiting > with > baited breath (actually it's the double chili dog I had for lunch) > for the > forcast for the next couple of days. I wonder what that term means > anyway. There have been times when I thought I could have used > my breath for catfish bait but that's another story. :-) > > Larry Flesner > > > > The correct spelling is actually bated breath but its so common > these days to see it written as baited breath that theres every > chance it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of > conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers. > > Its easy to mock, but theres a real problem here. Bated and baited > sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to > bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. > Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of > abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called > aphesis); it has the meaning reduced, lessened, lowered in force. > So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing > through terror, awe, extreme anticipation, or anxiety. > > I'd call this one "Extreme Anticipation". > > -Jeff Scott > > > _______________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at > http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html > > > >
Virgil N. Salisbury - AMSOIL www.lubedealer.com/salisbury Miami ,Fl
