Re: "tridant" vs. "trident"

Subject: Re: "tridant" vs. "trident"
From: DAVID IBBETSON <ibbetson -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 22:50:34 -0400

In origin a "trident" is a three-pronged fishing spear. Such spears are
still used in some countries, or were earlier in this century.

For this reader "tridant" would have to be defined. as would any word used
to mean a third of a geographical area.

This was the original sense of "riding" as in the English county of
Yorkshire which, until a few years ago was divided into a North riding and
East riding and a West riding. (Have I got that right? one cardinal point is
missing.) Etymologists tell us that, in this sense, riding is a worn-down
version of "thriding" -- "third part"

Unfortunately few would understand "riding" in this sense. Today it is an
everyday Canadian word for a "constituency".

David (the idiot who, unlike Gaul, is not divided into three parts) Ibbetson

David Ibbetson ibbetson -at- idirect -dot- com
133 Wilton St, #506, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5A 4A4
Phone (416) 363-6692 Fax (416) 363-4987

If I were a cassowary
On the plains of Timbuctoo,
I would eat a missionary,
Cassock, band, and hymn-book too.
-- Bishop Samuel (Soapy Sam) Wilberforce, ascribed.
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