[PRCo] Re: ÆROPORT

[Donald Galt]

On 19 May 2003 at 23:31, Jim Holland wrote:

> 	According to  *Webster's__School__Dictionary* (1980 by Merriam and
> Company)  AIRDROME  is aka  AIRPORT. 
> 
> 	Maybe  *aerodrome*  was originally  *ÆRODROME* which is too
> complicated for us moderns and it got watered down to AIRDROME. 

Nothing to do with moderns.

"Aerodrome" is a French word reasonably familiar through most of the 20th 
century in most of the English-speaking world (correctly in French: 
"aerodrôme"). But it didn't achieve currency in the USA. If anybody can find a 
single instance of its use in the name of a US airport, ever, I'll retract 
that.

So "airdrome" is an extension of the "Webster knoahs best" principle to a word 
which Americans never used anyway.

> But I understand there is a new definition to AIRDROME which Oxford is
> considering for addition to the dictionary:   Transit for Air-Heads! 

Surely you mean air-drones.

Back to my original point: I really did think Fred was being funny. And I still 
think that a spell-checker is scraping the bottom of the barrel to include 
"airdrome" even if it is in the dictionary.

D2