Timeline for "to bath" vs "to bathe"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
25 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 10, 2016 at 18:33 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @psmears: I assumed that "undertook my undergraduate degree" was normal in British English, since it certainly isn't in American English. Most Americans I know who use their middle name just drop their first name, but a few in academia use "I. Middle Surname" on academic papers, although not in "real life". | |
| Oct 10, 2016 at 17:29 | comment | added | psmears | @PeterShor: To be fair, "undertook my undergraduate degree" sounds pretty odd in BrE too! Yep, agree that he's not really a good data point either way - just wanted to point out that, despite working at a UK university, he's not a native BrE speaker, so shouldn't be taken that way either... | |
| Oct 10, 2016 at 16:27 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @psmears: A quote from H. Mark Glancy: "I undertook my undergraduate degree at the University of Lancaster and completed an MA and PhD at the University of East Anglia." An unanglicized American would never say "undertook my undergraduate degree". Even if he's originally from the U.S., he's been in the U.K. long enough to have absorbed some British locutions, including "bath the baby". | |
| Oct 10, 2016 at 15:56 | comment | added | psmears | @PeterShor: Just come across this. Despite the fact that he lectures at a London university, anyone calling themselves "H. Mark Glancy" is far more likely to be American (the "I. Name Surname" style, using an explicit initial with a middle name and a surname, is rare-to-unheard-of in the UK - people who want to use their middle name virtually always just use "Name Surname", omitting the "I"). And indeed Amazon suggests he's from New Orleans :) | |
| Nov 4, 2014 at 7:37 | comment | added | WS2 | @Andy It seems ridiculous to speak of an 'equivalence' here. | |
| Nov 4, 2014 at 2:24 | comment | added | Andy | @WS2 It looks like American English is also a collection of dialects as well, so I meant our generic variation (General American) as opposed to the British one (whatever the equivalent of General American is). | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 18:49 | comment | added | WS2 | @Andy When you say 'the British one (dialect', you must be aware that there is no such thing. There are scores of dialects in the British Isles. Perhaps you meant to say 'the Received Pronunciation' which is a manner of speaking English which has been around a shorter time than the United States of America has been an independent country. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 15:45 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Mari-Lou: Despite the fact that it is about Hollywood, the chapter you link to was written by H Mark Glancy, probably the same H. Mark Glancy who is a senior lecturer in history at the University of London. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 15:35 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | I didn't say 'They shouldn't use American English'. Your 'Sounds like you believe the American dialect is somehow inferior to the British one' is an unwarranted slur, saying rather more about you than me. My objection was to the answerer's implication that because this usage doesn't fit with their preferred style, there must be an error (typo) involved. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 15:01 | comment | added | choster | @Andy As there is no single standard of English, as a practical matter, Italians would probably be taught British usage— they're far more likely to encounter people speaking it. And by the same token, a Panamanian or Saipanese would be better off learning AmE. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 13:52 | comment | added | Andy | @EdwinAshworth Why shouldn't they use American English? Sounds like you believe the American dialect is somehow inferior to the British one. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 13:51 | comment | added | Andy | @WS2 No, in the US you give the baby a bath, or you bathe the baby. Bath the baby sounds really strange and I've never once heard it said here. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 13:45 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | @PeterShor and yet it's in print "she does not know how to bath the baby" | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 13:38 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Edwin: while I wouldn't be too surprised if it's used regionally in the U.S., "bath the baby" sounds very strange to an American from the Northeast. It would be "give the baby a bath", "wash the baby", or "bathe the baby". | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 13:06 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | These Google Ngrams seem to show that the expression 'bath the baby' is not taboo in the US. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 12:51 | comment | added | Hot Licks | @EdwinAshworth - Only "verb". | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 12:49 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Hot Licks Can't you verb any noun in the US? | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 12:44 | comment | added | Hot Licks | @WS2 - No, in the US you do not "bath" the baby. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 12:37 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | @EdwinAshworth the rest of the passage was fine, just those two separate instances made me "sit up" and exclaim "that's wrong" but then I checked with ODO and... I don't know any more :( | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 12:32 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Mari-Lou A (1) Thank you :-) (Blame my computer-repair-man) (but the break did alleviate some of the lumbar pains). (2) An Italian school textbook? Ah, that makes it far less acceptable as an authoritative source. If they're as bad as some of the English ones. It's another of these 'not incorrect, but likely to raise hearers' eyebrows in most places' usages. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 12:27 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | @EdwinAshworth The phrase is from an Italian "school" textbook, not an Italian website. I did some research online, hence the websites quoted. I don't know if the textbooks were written by British/American writers. I didn't think to check up on that. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 12:19 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | You can't just put 'No, those are just typos'. Why shouldn't an Italian website employ British usage? | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 11:43 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | I presumed the .com referred to American websites. I've doubled-checked and you're right. The "to bath" examples are from British websites. | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 11:42 | comment | added | WS2 | Do you not bath the baby in America? | |
| Nov 3, 2014 at 11:35 | history | answered | Michael Lorton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |