Re: [CE-L] USAGE: alright all right
"Alright" has always been one of my pet peeves (it bugged me way back
when I was in high school). Is the opposite of it "alwrong"?
Actually, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, `alright' is a variant spelling of `all right', and dates back at least to the end of the 19th century.
I was taught `alright' at school (in the UK - American preferences may be different), and have only recently come to prefer `all right' (although I don't complain when someone uses one word either!). `Alright' may not be the opposite of `alwrong', but `all right' isn't the opposite of `all wrong' either:
People who think the earth is round are all right
(but not necessarily alright).
People who think the earth is flat are all wrong.
People who aren't ill are alright (or all right).
People who are ill are not all wrong.
So there's a useful distinction to be made between `all right' and `alright', at least in some contrived contexts (even if `alright' is a one-hundred-year-old newcomer on the scene!).
Alright, alot, and till for until. [shudder] Stuff that makes me cringe!
I've seen `alot' (for `a lot') in relatively illiterate scrawlings on the Internet and nowhere else - it certainly sends shivers down my spine too! Although it begins with `al', it's not quite in the same category as `alright'. For comparable words, think instead of `already' and `altogether' (both of which I assume you'd agree are fine).
As for `till' for `until', what's the problem with that? `Till' is a perfectly good word in its own right (with the same meaning as `until'). Consider the well known phrase `Till death do us part' if you doubt the word's pedigree.
Best wishes,
Sandy
Ambertext, 2/Gf Bruntsfield Crescent, Edinburgh EH10 4EZ, Scotland
+44 (0) 131 447 9257 http://www.ambertext.co.uk/ sandy -at- ambertext -dot- co -dot- uk
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RE: [CE-L] USAGE: alright all right: From: Jones, Donna
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