Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.6.2.17 $; site uiucdcs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!reingold 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 References: <838@eisx.UUCP> Lines: 18 Nf-ID: #R:eisx:-83800:uiucdcs:44500005:000:929 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 Specifically, the third edition says it is dialect while the first and second editions say it is obsolete.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.