Re: Guardian 23000

Danny Kodicek wrote:
> 
> "Peter T. Daniels" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Danny Kodicek wrote:
> > >
> > > "Sheila Quate" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> > > >    Danny Kodicek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > > March sunny? Not entirely - diabolical (7)
> > > >
> > > > > Solution:
> > > > > DEMONIC
> > > >
> > > > > Obviously the definition works, but I can't see the cryptic at all.
> > > >
> > > > A march is a DEMO, sunny is NICe minus the e.
> > >
> > > Doh. Clearly I had a blind spot going on, I simply didn't see it.
> >
> > A DEMO is a recording distributed to radio stations for airplay, or the
> > floor model of an appliance or device of some sort, but not a
> > (political) demonstration.
> 
> Why shouldn't it be? I mean, they're all abbreviations of the same word, so
> why should they be applicable in one sense and not in the other? Obviously,

There are no "whys" of idiomatic usage. Conceivably, it's because in the
two senses I give it's used as an adjective (demonstration disk,
demonstration model), and in the other one it's a noun. But some
parallels would be nice.

> it's beside the point anyway because in this country Demo *is* a standard
> abbreviation for a political demonstration, but you seem to be attaching
> some kind of value judgement on whether it should be the case...
> 
> >
> > But you Brits tend to truncate words with so many syllables in odd ways.
> > (Why don't you tolerate words with several syllables?)
> 
> Are you referring to Math / Maths again? They're both one-syllable
> abbreviations, after all!

No; in British interviews, I hear all sorts of long words chopped down
to their first two syllables. (It seems very Japanese, somehow.)

The maths thing is creeping pluralism, a different phenomenon.
-- 
Peter T. Daniels                       [EMAIL PROTECTED]