Re: "write him" was Re: More questions

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, John Cowan wrote:

> To me a cupboard is essentially a tall thin wooden (or metal) box
> attached to the wall, with shelves and a door, and used to store
> non-perishable food, plates, glasses, and such.  It can be either
> near the floor or near the ceiling, but rarely in between.
> If it contains anything else, it is a "cabinet".
I use 'cupboard' to mean something I know no other term for: something you
keep clothes or dishes or food in. In the latter two cases it has shelves.
It almost always has a door, but this is not a requirement. A cupboard
used for storing food whose face is at least (door-to-room-)door-sized may
be a pantry.

> > _pot_: I mean a "saucepan" (a word I can't bring myself to use - it's
> > like saying _spikespoon_ for _fork_). Sometimes understood. Thanks to
> > context, I've never had it taken as a reference to marijuana. But I'm
> > surprised it misunderstood at all.
>
> I share your view about "pot", and am frequently confused when my wife
> (a Southerner) refers to an obvious pot as a pan.  She calls all such
> utensils pans, whereas for me "pan" has to be qualified as "frying pan"
> or "cake pan" or such.
I use one or the other on a whim. I tend to call them cake trays, though.

> I too am rhotic, and have no trouble saying [bar\kli] for the philosopher,
> and [br\=kli], as the natives do, for the city in California.  This is a
> sound change in the 17th-18th century that mostly got backed out, but
> left a few traces behind in proper names and the RP pronunciation of
> "clerk" and a few other words.
Really? I thought it was earlier than that? Words like 'farm' and 'star'
come from forms with an -e- in them, but I understand that the -a- form
exists in ME?

--
Tristan

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