Another well-known one is "chum", which originally meant "roommate", an abbreviation of "chamber-fellow". Recorded only since c 1684. A well-known conjecture is that it was a familiar abbreviation of , , or the like.

There are plenty of words that first appeared as university ... some Latin term of the schools", according to the OED. Rugger. Soccer. Brekkers. the -er or -ers ending attached to a truncated version of a word is or was characteristic of

11. The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can. Erm, isn't that considered the correct way to abbreviate Doctor? It's a moot point. Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa

11. The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can. Erm, isn't that considered the correct way to abbreviate Doctor? Not on these shores. Skitt (in Hayward, California) www.geocities.com/opus731/

11. The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can. Erm, isn't that considered the correct way to abbreviate Doctor? Gopi Sundaram

(about sound files for the speech examples in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association ) Of immediate interest is the fact that the AmE representative is MIMIM. Professor Peter Ladefoged, the author of the American English piece,

When I was a young child my elder siblings... That, to me, stood out like red on green. Do some people actually *say* 'elder siblings' (without smirking, that is)? ... I wanted to appear an academic, but 'elder siblings' simply

instead, from the written abbreviation The old pennies, of course, used the abbreviation "d", though no-one ever called them "dee"). No-one? We most certainly used 'dee' when I was at school. I don't remember it

Nobuko Iwasaki; Does everyone in English-speaking countries have the name of the street/avenue/boulevard in their address (if they don't have a PO box)? In urban areas, this is almost always true. There are some exceptions where the name of a

instead, from the written abbreviation The old pennies, of course, used the abbreviation "d", though no-one ever called them "dee"). No-one? We most certainly used 'dee' when I was at school. Interesting. Here in the