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Usenet Posted 21 years ago
Usage

Substract

Hi wordsmiths
Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate? Archaic? Acceptable in some English-speaking regions?
  

Top answer

[nq:1]Hi wordsmiths Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate? Archaic?

  • [nq:1]Hi wordsmiths Advice sought.
  • Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate?
  • Archaic?
  • [/nq] I consider it non-native English and plain wrong.
  • It might for all I know be acceptable in some countries where English has only recently become a widespread native language.
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17 Answers
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[nq:1]Hi wordsmiths Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate? Archaic? Acceptable in some English-speaking regions?[/nq]
I consider it non-native English and plain wrong. It might for all I know be acceptable in some countries where English has only recently become a widespread native language.

Jerry Friedman
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[nq:1]Hi wordsmiths Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate? Archaic? Acceptable in some English-speaking regions?[/nq]
If you are living in the 17th century, or in some senses the 18th-early 19th centuries, you might get away with it. But I doubt that that's the case.
The OED entry begins:
substract, v.
Now illiterate.
(pronunciation & derivation omi
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[nq:1]Hi wordsmiths Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate? Archaic? Acceptable in some English-speaking regions?[/nq]
I remember hearing "substract" from many of the black kids from the ghetto in middle school. San Francisco, mid-1980s.
Adam Maass
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[nq:2]Hi wordsmiths Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plainilliterate? Archaic? Acceptable in some English-speaking regions?[/nq]
[nq:1]I remember hearing "substract" from many of the black kids from the ghetto in middle school. San Francisco, mid-1980s.[/nq]
You gotta cerstificate for that?
Mike.
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[nq:2]I remember hearing "substract" from many of the black kids from the ghetto in middle school. San Francisco, mid-1980s.[/nq]
[nq:1]You gotta cerstificate for that?[/nq]
Or, even worse, "cerstifticate". But I think that's done for effect.

Matti
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[nq:2]You gotta cerstificate for that?[/nq]
[nq:1]Or, even worse, "cerstifticate". But I think that's done for effect.[/nq]
"Sustificate" in Nottingham when I grew up, with the short Midlands "u" of "bust" rather than the longer vowel of "shirt".

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England
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[nq:1]illiterate?[/nq]
[nq:2]I remember hearing "substract" from many of the black kids from the ghetto in middle school. San Francisco, mid-1980s.[/nq]
[nq:1]You gotta cerstificate for that?[/nq]
I think it's a stastistical anomaly.

Liebs
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[nq:2]Hi wordsmiths Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate? Archaic? Acceptable in some English-speaking regions?[/nq]
[nq:1]I remember hearing "substract" from many of the black kids from the ghetto in middle school. San Francisco, mid-1980s.[/nq]
And then there's always ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision.
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[nq:1]I think it's a stastistical anomaly.[/nq]
I've heard tell that that s was moved over from "asterik".
Joe Fineman joe (Email Removed)
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[nq:1]Advice sought. Is "substract" for "subtract" just plain illiterate? Archaic? Acceptable in some English-speaking regions?[/nq]
Your first two guesses are right, says the OED. The extra s first appeared in medieval Latin and was in literate English usage from the 16th to the early 19th century. "Now (ca. 1900) illiterate."
Joe Fineman joe (Email Removed)

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