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Topic History of: My Alma Mater Trinity, Cambridge triumphs!
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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JK2006 |
Oxford, Gnomo? Oxford? Apart from the obvious horror, that would rather render the entire thread pointless! |
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Pru |
If anything it's fallen out of fashion these days, as the language has, but I can assure you it's still fairly common at Cambridge (whose graduates exported it to New England and other places in the 17th century). |
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Gnomo |
Oh yes! - I forgot his Father was American, but I would have thought Charterhouse and Oxford would have knocked all those damned foreign tendencies out of him.
That raises an interesting question - do you have a US passport as well as a UK one JK? Or do you have to apply for a VISA (presumably difficult). |
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honey!oh sugar sugar. |
Gnomo wrote:
"Alma Mater" - you've spend too long in the States JK
according to 'usingenglish.com' -
It's correct, but we don't use it, so it would be a conscious import from American English. We could use it sarcastically- I have heard it used meaning 'prison' in the UK. Because it's not a normal usage, there would have to be a reason, and humour, irony, etc, are, as Mr Pedantic says, the most obvious reasons.
So perhaps you should reserve the term for Maidstone Prison
I think Mr King is half-American and has special dispensation to say " Alma Mater" and "Movie" 
Otherwise, he would be flicked with a wet tea-towel! |
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Gnomo |
"Alma Mater" - you've spend too long in the States JK
according to 'usingenglish.com' -
It's correct, but we don't use it, so it would be a conscious import from American English. We could use it sarcastically- I have heard it used meaning 'prison' in the UK. Because it's not a normal usage, there would have to be a reason, and humour, irony, etc, are, as Mr Pedantic says, the most obvious reasons.
So perhaps you should reserve the term for Maidstone Prison |
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