Re: USAGE: Verse, was: Re: Thorn vs Eth

From: "Roger Mills" <romilly@...>
> Presumably, "verse" < versus, though how or why GOK.
Because |versus| (with the Latin |-us| ending) is in some idiolects
homophonous
to (or at least misheard as) *|verses| (with the English verbal |-s| /z/
ending).

So the verb "verse" is back-formed, on the basis of headlines like |spy versus
spy|, which changes meaning from "spy against spy" to "spy battles spy".

Or not.

    *Muke!
--
http://www.frath.net/

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