[Dixonary] OT - More Transatlantic Misunderstandings

[Tim Lodge]

I was amused just now when posting the new word on the Google Website
that a warning came up saying "Your message will appear on Google
momentarily". In British English that means it will appear for an
instant and go away again - not what the programmer intended, I'm
sure!

-- Tim L

[Christopher Carson]

That would be a good one for Michael Quinion to use in the "sic" section of
World Wide Words.

CC

[Daniel B. Widdis]

TL> "Your message will appear on Google momentarily"
TL> ... it will appear for an instant and go away again

Interestingly, I found this note in the AHD4
(http://www.bartleby.com/61/82/M0378200.html) regarding Google's usage:

Momentarily is widely used in speech to mean "in a moment," as in _The
manager is on another line, but she'll be with you momentarily_. This usage
rarely leads to ambiguity since the intended sense can usually be determined
on the basis of the tense of the verb and the context. Nonetheless, many
critics hold that the adverb should be reserved for the senses "for a
moment," and the extended usage is unacceptable to 59 percent of the Usage
Panel.

--
Dan

[Bill Hirst]

Two countries, separated by a common language. I can adjust to the "u" in colour; I can tolerate driving on the left; but cheese and rice, please keep Ozzy Osbourne at home.

[Dodi Schultz]

>> I was amused just now when posting the new word on the Google
>> Website that a warning came up saying "Your message will appear on
>> Google momentarily". In British English that means it will appear
>> for an instant and go away again - not what the programmer intended,
>> I'm sure!

Actually, Tim, in American English it has BOTH meanings. Some usage mavens
here insist that the UK definition is the only one that should be
recognized.

"Presently" is another source of similar confusion: Here, at least, it can
mean either "at this time" OR "pretty soon."

Some words are best avoided altogether. ;-)

--Dodi

[Tim Lodge]

Thanks to you all for commenting.

Dodi

>> "Presently" is another source of similar confusion: Here, at least, it can
mean either "at this time" OR "pretty soon." <<

The "pretty soon" meaning is the one I prefer. I'd use "at present"
for the other meaning.

Bill

I'd hoped we'd got rid of Ozzy Osborne to your side of the pond!

-- Tim L

[dixonary@siam.co.uk]

> Momentarily is widely used in speech to mean "in a moment," as in _The
> manager is on another line, but she'll be with you momentarily_.
>
This usage particularly worries me when the captain of a plane announces
"we shall be landing momentarily"!

Best wishes,

Tim B

[Paul Keating]

The September 2002 draft revision to the OED entry for this word and sense
has a 1961 citation from Evelyn Waugh that's not in OED2. So not exclusively
North American. And not just anybody's usage.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel B. Widdis" <widdis (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
Subject: [Dixonary] Re: OT - More Transatlantic Misunderstandings


> TL> "Your message will appear on Google momentarily"
> TL> ... it will appear for an instant and go away again

> I found this note in the AHD4:
>
> The extended usage is unacceptable to 59 percent of the Usage Panel.

[Dodi Schultz]

Yet again (this time, reacting to a message from Paul):

Would people please SIGN their messages? I.e., place your name immediately
below the body of the message. In my e-mail program (TAPCIS), the header's
"Fm" line indicates only that it's a Dixonary message from GoogleGroups.
(In order to discover who actually sent the message, I had to scrounge
through a bunch of dense routing text that followed it.)

Thanks, folks.

--Dodi

[jdh]

God bless TAPCIS.

God bless good king Harold.

With a little bit of luck, he might have won at Hastings and perhaps these transatlantic translation problems would have been lessened if English be less of a mongrel language than it now is ?

David H

[jdh]

God bless good king Harold.

Oops. Maybe it's a question of the lesser of the evils: England, Norway, or Normandy ?

David H

[Paul Keating]

Sorry, Dodi, I do try to remember, but OE makes me type it all by hand and I
sometimes forget.

--
Paul Keating
The Hague

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dodi Schultz" <SCHULTZ (AT) compuserve (DOT) com>

Would people please SIGN their messages?