Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
On 2014-01-24 18:48, Huddleston, Scott wrote:
Thanks to Allan Sherman's comedy lyrics, I grew up thinking "half a pairs of scissors is a single sciss" :-) It's actually the rarely used "scissor".
-----Original Message----- From: math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of meekerdb Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 5:59 PM To: math-fun
They say "pants" because they have two legs, the same way they say "pliers" and "scissors".
Brent Meeker
On 1/24/2014 6:38 AM, Adam P. Goucher wrote:
Quite a lot of Anglo-American confusion arises from the fact that American `pants' are trousers, whereas British `pants' are underwear.
Of course, I'm surprised that Americans don't say `pant' instead. (!)
Sincerely,
Adam P. Goucher
----- Original Message ----- From: W. Edwin Clark Sent: 01/24/14 06:12 AM To: math-fun Subject: [math-fun] math versus maths
This video defends the American way. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZCECvoaTA>
Perhaps stolen years earlier from Roger Price: http://capj.livejournal.com/11301.html --rwg While "aluminum" may have been a mistake, we don't say plumbium, stannium, aurium, or argentium. I grew up thinking Saksfifth was an avenue.
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mathfuneavesdroppers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mathfuneavesdroppers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. I grew up thinking the stick of sealing wax my great grandfather used to seal letters that was in my granfather's rolltop desk was "ceiling wax" and could never understand why someone would put wax on the ceiling. The same goes for the phrase "best seller" which I thought was "best cellar". Never could understand what made one the best. J. Brillhart