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Re: Language, Really OT (was [OM] Cricket Match)

Subject: Re: Language, Really OT (was [OM] Cricket Match)
From: "John Pendley" <jpendley@xxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 10:17:58 -0400
John Pendley wrote:
>
> > >>  Ergh! is right.  When's the last time you went to an "exhibition"
> > >>  (noun) as
> > >>  opposed to an "exhibit" (verb)?  I'm convinced that everyone goes to
> > >>  "exhibits" nowadays.
>
> > Drat, I was late in on this one: "exhibit" is a noun ... there are
> > "exhibits" in exhibitions, or even in court.
>
> Surely, It's both: "I'm going to exhibit some of my B&W work in that new
> gallery in a few weeks".  In which case, the display of my work would be
> an exhibition, of course.

Since I started this, I should bow to those who got it right.  "Exhibit" is
indeed a noun meaning "that which is exhibited," or "the act of exhibiting."
This, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, the closeest we
Americans have to the OED: its definitions are not based on historical
principles but on the contributions (not "input") of informed users of
American English.  I'm convinced, however, that the use of "exhibit" as a
noun has come about in my lifetime and that it used to used exclusively as a
verb.  That's still the way I use it.  The same thing has happened with
other words, through usage.  And then there's the matter of past tense and
past participles regularization:  the past participle of "light" used to be
"lit."  Now, because of the tendancy to regularize verb endings--which has
been going on for centuries--"lighted" has become more and more common as
the past participle during my lifetime.  I wonder if this all started with
Hemingway's "A Clean, Well Lighted Place."


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