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O.ABOOTTY Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary
vocabulary
HOW MANIETH
To ask a question that elicits an ordinal number as answer, the English are known to use, in speech, the question word WHAT NUMBER: "What number prime minister of India is Mr Narendra Modi?"
I have wondered why the English do not use HOW MANIETH instead of WHAT NUMBER. A Englishman once said that he wished such a word had existed in English. A letter from Oxford University says that there is no word like HOW MANIETH in English.
But the other day I happened to see HOW MANIETH in a dictionary. The Chambers Dictionary says that the Latin word 'quot' means 'how manieth' when it explains the etymology of the word 'quota'. Likewise, an old edition (1964?) of the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary also says under 'quota' that the word 'quot' means 'how manieth'.
Then why do English people say that 'how manieth' is not an English word?
To ask a question that elicits an ordinal number as answer, the English are known to use, in speech, the question word WHAT NUMBER: "What number prime minister of India is Mr Narendra Modi?"
I have wondered why the English do not use HOW MANIETH instead of WHAT NUMBER. A Englishman once said that he wished such a word had existed in English. A letter from Oxford University says that there is no word like HOW MANIETH in English.
But the other day I happened to see HOW MANIETH in a dictionary. The Chambers Dictionary says that the Latin word 'quot' means 'how manieth' when it explains the etymology of the word 'quota'. Likewise, an old edition (1964?) of the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary also says under 'quota' that the word 'quot' means 'how manieth'.
Then why do English people say that 'how manieth' is not an English word?
Top answer
ABOOTTY Then why do English people say that 'how manieth' is not an English word? Because we don't use that word expression. Lexicographers use all sorts of 'unnatural' and abbreviated forms in order to keep their dictionaries a reasonable size.
- ABOOTTY Then why do English people say that 'how manieth' is not an English word?
- Because we don't use that word expression.
- Lexicographers use all sorts of 'unnatural' and abbreviated forms in order to keep their dictionaries a reasonable size.
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1 Answers
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O.ABOOTTYThen why do English people say that 'how manieth' is not an English word?Because we don't use that
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