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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (90462)	4/5/2003 10:11:44 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Mq - I have in my possession a secret weapon in the quest to understand the Supreme Court - a copy of Webster's Third International Dictionary. I know you won't bother to study law any more than I will bother to study engineering - but the words are in the dictionary.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (90462)	4/6/2003 12:18:41 AM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Mq: As regards the Supremes, I really enjoyed this reporter's take: slate.msn.com

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (90462)	4/6/2003 1:55:25 AM
From: Doc Bones	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

OT I wait with bated breath. [Baited breath in American - I guess they love eating fish bait or something]. "baited breath" - 20K google hits "bated breath" - 30K google hits Google - The ultimate test. I don't think "baited" is particularly American, nor do I believe that you are an annoyed pedant! ;-) Good explanation: ---------- BATED BREATH World Wide Words - Michael Quinion From Esther C Hill Tucker: “I can’t find the definition for bated breath or it might be spelled baited breath. Any clue?” The correct and original form is bated breath, but the first word is now so rare that it only appears in this phrase. Because bated is archaic, the phrase bated breath is a linguistic fossil. As a result, people have begun to respell it as a word they do know (a process that linguists call folk etymology). Bated is an abbreviation of abated through loss of the first vowel, and which has the meaning “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”. So bated breath means that you almost stop breathing through terror, or awe, or extreme anticipation or anxiety. Shakespeare used it in The Merchant of Venice: “Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness, Say this: ... ”. So did Mark Twain in Tom Sawyer: “Every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale”. The recent tendency to write bated as baited evokes an incongruous image, which Geoffrey Taylor captured in verse in his poem Cruel Clever Cat: Sally, having swallowed cheese, Directs down holes the scented breeze, Enticing thus with baited breath Mice to an untimely death. It is best to stick to the traditional spelling, if only to avoid annoying the pedants among us! quinion.com