hmmm, i always thought that "In re:" meant "in regards to..."
....which i guess equates to the same meaning as "in reference to..." tan. -----Original Message----- From: Stan Halpin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 22 July 2004 3:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Re (Was Re: Comment and Question (WAS: RE: Apology for............)) Bob, On this side of the pond, using what is oxymoronically known as American English, there is a businesspersons' phrase which is used as follows: "Dear Mr. Jones: In re: your letter of the 5th,..." with the apparent presumption being that 're' is short for 'reference'. I have never seen/heard 'in re to...' which you might expect if 're' were taken to be short for 'reply'. Could it be that 're:' is in fact proper usage, that it is a shorthand reference to 'reference'? Stan On Jul 21, 2004, at 2:10 AM, Bob W wrote: > Hi, > >> Nice post Lasse. AW means "AntWort" in German, same as RE: . > > <schoolmasterish pendantry> > > well, not quite. 're' is Latin for 'about' and is a complete word in > its own right. It is not short for 'reply', as some people think. > > Placing 're' in the subject line for replies is an unfortunate > grammatical error that has been cast in digital concrete. > > </schoolmasterish pedantry> > > -- > Cheers, > Bob >
