Word: verbs
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...Lexicographer Craigie, accounts for the U. S. habit of twisting familiar English words into new meanings. Inventive John Adams first used appreciation to mean an increase in value. Inventive George Washington introduced administration in its U. S. political sense in his 1796 Farewell Address, first used average as a verb, first used the term back country. Since then back has been firmly imbedded as an adjective in such U. S. phrases as back taxes, back pay, back number, back talk, backhouse. Likewise inventive was Mark Twain who introduced far along and well along, meaning advanced. The phrase get along appeared...
...first is the point which you appear to have made according to the newspaper items I have seen viz, that the act may be construed as issuing commands only to teachers and to the officers of the state. The transition from Every citizen . . . shall etc. (employing a verb in the active voice) to 'No professor . . . shall be permitted,' in the passive voice, suggests the construction which you doubtless first assumed...
...Johnston (p. 63, Oct. 22, TIME) he is correct in his pronunciation of rodeo. It comes from the Spanish verb rodear?to circle?and rodeo merely means roundup. All Texas and Mexico so pronounce the word, but California, for no good reason, calls it Ro- day'o, probably the Iowa pronunciation...
...Education last week fell that same stern gaze when Dr. McClenahan, a member since 1931, uprose to announce that the Board was "guilty of sending out illiterate reports of its own proceedings." In its published minutes he had found a split infinitive, a singular noun followed by a plural verb...
...spite of all this, busty-wusty West has enough push to put it over satisfactorily, if you are only seeking an afternoon's entertainment. Her walk and her accent, for those who like them, are there. Even professors of ancient Gaelic and students of the Urdu verb forms will enjoy hearing her sing "I've found a new way to go to town," and lechery, after all, is always to the point. An excellent shot, which seems to give promise that the old girl can act, is that in which Mae shows her presents to a friend; you will...