If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Sorry, Ferney, but there seems to be a touch of classical confusion here. Omnibus is Latin, the dative or ablative plural of omnis, and thus means "for everyone" or "everybody's" - whether they use it or not.
You know that, and I know that, Pabs ... but these people ... !
I feel 16 again!
It'll pass
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]
Sorry, Ferney, but there seems to be a touch of classical confusion here. Omnibus is Latin, the dative or ablative plural of omnis, and thus means "for everyone" or "everybody's" - whether they use it or not.
I feel 16 again!
Every swot kno this! The rest had a chance to catch up from the masterful classical exposition which preceded this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVHbF0jAzMw Sadly, not in this clip.
Michael Flanders: "Omnibus, my friend Mr Swann tells me, comes from the Latin omnibus." [Identical 'English' pronunciation: pause for laughter] "Meaning 'to or for, by, with or from everybody', which is a very good description."
Last edited by LeMartinPecheur; 14-02-15, 10:53.
Reason: Added transcription after digging out the LP
I keep hitting the Escape key, but I'm still here!
Sorry, Ferney, but there seems to be a touch of classical confusion here. Omnibus is Latin, the dative or ablative plural of omnis, and thus means "for everyone" or "everybody's" - whether they use it or not.
But what about an 'omnibus' edition of a magazine - meaning collected past editions or a selection from them - in other words, 'contains' rather than 'for'?
But what about an 'omnibus' edition of a magazine - meaning collected past editions or a selection from them - in other words, 'contains' rather than 'for'?
Just a guess, but it might have begun with the meaning "for everyone" but we've altered the meaning to something that makes more sense to us now (probably because the Latin meaning wasn't widely known). It's the same process by which "Jumbo" now means "very big", whereas it began as a name (from mumbo-jumbo) given to a baby elephant that just happened to grow into the biggest - and most famous - ever.
But what about an 'omnibus' edition of a magazine - meaning collected past editions or a selection from them - in other words, 'contains' rather than 'for'?
... ain't it still probably a dative?
OED gives it as 'relating to or serving for numerous distinct objects at once; comprising a large number of items or particulars: eg an omnibus bill, clause, order, faculty'
...OED gives it as 'relating to or serving for numerous distinct objects at once; comprising a large number of items or particulars: eg an omnibus bill, clause, order, faculty'...
Or even being comprised of - but never, ever comprising of. But let that pass.
By the time it's acquired this meaning, it's not really a dative any more, is it? More like a genitive, as in the joke phrase omnium gatherum, which now apparently means something completely different.
Possibly not a lot per se. But chair is shorter, so it's an abbreviation, more economical. Like when we get off a bus and say, 'Cheers, drive!' ('Thank you, driver').
Well, they speak funny in Bristol ...
So we can abbreviate both fisherman and fisherwoman and call them both a 'fish'?
So we can abbreviate both fisherman and fisherwoman and call them both a 'fish'?
Well, acording to FF, it would, like the "chair" example, be "fisher'n", except that this might perhaps cause some confusion in that it sounds rather like something nuclear.
Comment