Re: THEORY: derivation question
| From: | Herman Miller <hmiller@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, March 26, 1999, 4:30 |
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On Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:50:52 -0500, Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:
>Padraic Brown wrote:
>> It threw me for a loop, and no mistake. I'd only ever heard "dwarfs" =
as a
>> verb.
>
>Here I was wondering if I spoke an unusual dialect. I also use
>"dwarves" as the plural, same with "elves", even tho I rarely have the
>opportunity to use either one, especially _elves_.
The first Disney animated feature had the title _Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs_, but recent fiction and role-playing games all use "dwarves" as =
far
as I know. Somewhere between 1937 and today, "dwarves" seems to have
replaced "dwarfs" as the more common plural (except in certain technical
usages, e.g., "white dwarfs" in astronomy). I wouldn't be surprised if =
the
popularity of Tolkien's works, and his influence on other writers in the
genre, had something to do with that.
--
languages of Kolagia---> =
+---<http://www.io.com/~hmiller/languages.html>---
Thryomanes /"If all Printers were determin'd not to print =
any
(Herman Miller) / thing till they were sure it would offend no =
body,
moc.oi @ rellimh <-/ there would be very little printed." -Ben =
Franklin