TIP: Click on subject to list as thread! ANSI
echo: english_tutor
to: AUGUST ABOLINS
from: ANTON SHEPELEV
date: 2020-08-12 13:09:00
subject: Get

August Abolins to Anton Shepelev:

AS>> The word `get' is so cruelly overused in English that
AS>> Ambrose Bierce, commenting on the phrase "to get
AS>> married", asks the reader why not to say "to get dead",
AS>> too. I therefore try to limit its office in my
AS>> vocabulary to the immediate meaning of taking
AS>> something. One phrase, however, makes me cudgel my
AS>> brains -- "to get into a car". What literate synonyms
AS>> can you propose for it without `get'? How about "to
AS>> board"? But I fear it does not work for both passenger
AS>> and driver. I got stuck...

AA> How about the terms ingress and egress?

I didn't know they could be verbs.  But even if they can,
are they transitive verbs?  In other words, can one ingress
a car without making fun of English grammar and himself?

I first encountered the word `egress' in the scene in Moby
Dick where Ishmael saw Bildad and Peleg quarrel over his
`lay'.

AA> Typically, they may refer to the ease or difficulty of
AA> getting in and out of "something", even in traffic.  But
AA> I think you can make them work as a substitute for your
AA> needs.

These words refer to the acts of entrace and exit. I see
nothing in their meanings that might be linked with the
difficulty of entering or exiting...

AA> Quoted with Reformator/Quoter. Info = https://tinyurl.com/sxnhuxc

Quoted with GNU Troff. Visit https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/

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