Re: Tho (was: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences))

Ray:
> At 12:37 am -0400 9/4/01, Nik Taylor wrote:
> >David Peterson wrote:
> >> Common for fast food.  "Tho" I've never seen anywhere but this list.
> >> Find me an example in the real world and I'll believe you.
> >
> >"Thru" I've also seen on road signs.  "Tho" may be limited to online
> >contexts, tho NOT just this list.
>
> ...and not just to online contexts.  I've been using _tho_ informally for
> some 40 to 50 years - and that predates e-mails quite a bit, methinks.  I
> find it very unlikely that I alone in the whole anglophone world have been
> doing this!
>
> My dictionary lists:" _tho'_ same as _though_", which suggests _tho'- has
> been around for some time - but I have a feeling that if I did a bit of
> research I'd find earlier uses of _tho_ also without the apostrophe; after
> all, we happily accept _so_, _go_ and _no_ without any fuss.
"Tho" (not "tho'"), like "yr" (your), "shd" (should), "wd" (would), etc. is
an old conventional abbreviation (I believe -- without available materials
to check this now). I don't know whether it dates back to the Renaissance,
when all sorts of abbreviations were very common, perhaps for saving
parchment rather than time, but I do believe it dates back at least to the
19th century, when many people wrote as many letters as we now write emails
(& there were several postal collections & deliveries per day -- in London
at least).
--And.