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From: reingold@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Mareet Iyeen
Message-ID: <44500005@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Jan-85 10:42:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.44500005
Posted: Fri Jan  4 10:42:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 03:44:19 EST
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Nf-From: uiucdcs!reingold    Jan  4 09:42:00 1985

Abeles writes:

	...such words as "bei" are incorrectly used, viz., "I stayed by
	the Cohens last Shabbos."  In this example, the speaker may not
	realize that the German or Yiddish preposition "bei" is not the
	same word as the English preposition "by."  (There is no way that
	the use of "by" is correct in this example)

It is sad for me to note that, in his diatribe against poor English, Abeles
is somewhat misguided when it comes to the word "by." Webster's Unabridged
accepts the meaning "at the house of." Specifically, the third edition
says it is dialect while the first and second editions say it is obsolete.
The Oxford English Dictionary accepts the meaning, also calling it
obsolete. The OED and the second and third editions of Webster's Unabridged
include a quotation from Shakespeare in which the word "by" is used in
precisely this way. Although it may sound strange to Abeles' ears, it is
correct, if archaic.