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

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.