Re: Singular they

From: Bryan Olson (fakeaddress_at_nowhere.org)
Date: 01/18/05 

Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 08:27:15 GMT

Douglas A. Gwyn wrote:
> Bryan Olson wrote:
>
>> Douglas A. Gwyn wrote:
>> > Since it comes from Greek it would have to be a
>> > "hard" gamma.
>> It comes, more directly, from "gigantic".
>
> No, it doesn't.

Well, it's the same root, and "gigantic" predates the metric
system. The metric system is originally French, so really it
would be "gigantesque".

> Are you telling us that your
> father pronounced gigawatt "jeye-gaa"-watt?

Roughly, yes. I can't show all the phonetic characters my 1984
dictionary uses, but the first syllable is "jig".

The first use of "Giga" that many people recall was in the 1985
movie, /Back to the Future/. The semi-mad scientist pronounced
gigawatt with a soft G: jig'-uh-wot. Today, some people think
the term was a joke. Not so. 

-- 
--Bryan