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Re: USAGE : English past tense and participle in -et

From:Tommie L Powell <tommiepowell@...>
Date:Saturday, December 27, 2003, 21:01
Gary Shannon wrote:
> The thing that seems to be often forgotten today is > that "lot" used to be a unit of measure like "pound" > or "quart". One would say something like "Give me one > lot of the blue ones and three lots of the green > ones." Auctioneers still refer to a collection of > articles for sale as a single lot as in "We now offer > lot number 26 consisting of 200 antique books." > [SNIP] > That is what makes "alot of milk" just as wrong as > "agallon of milk or apound of butter." There is no > justification for appending "a" to any unit of > measure.
The true (traditional) meaning of the noun "lot" is clear from its verb form, "to allot." Lots are subdivisions. That's why cattle ranches have feed lots, for example.