Re: OT: baloney and cheese

I think we have Canadian members who can speak more definitely, but I
believe in Canada "riding" is used as the word for the constituency
from which an MP is elected, without regard to any division in thirds.
I have seen that division in thirds explanation for Yorkshire, but
apparently the modern word has evolved to mean simply "a territorial
political unit" in some contexts. My AHD lists the Canadian usage as
the first meaning, the Yorkshire usage as second, the derivation as
from thriding, and says nothing about Tipperary. Depending on the
circumstances, whoever named the Tipperary subdivisions may have been able
to argue that the word no longer implied a specific division in thirds.
John Leland

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003, Stephen Mulraney wrote:

> John Cowan wrote:
> > Joe scripsit:
> >
>
> [Re: counties]
>
> > Here's the total list of 39:
> > ...
> > Warwickshire, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire.
> > (The ridings [historically "thridings", 1/3-parts] of Yorkshire are also
> > very old, but not technically geographical counties.)
> >
> > --
> > It was impossible to inveigle           John Cowan <jcowan@...>
> > Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> > Into offering the slightest apology     http://www.reutershealth.com
> > For his Phenomenology.                      --W. H. Auden, from "People" (1953)
> >
> >
>
>
> Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I just noticed the definition of 'ridings'
> as 'thridings'. Interesting - and it shows up whoever it was who decided to
> divide the Irish county of Tipperary into two parts administratively - "North
> Riding" and "Sound Riding". Bloody typical.
>
> -stephen
>

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