• Re: (verbs) Profess v teach

    From Adam Funk@a24061@ducksburg.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 12:57:02 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 2026-06-10, Peter Moylan wrote:

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story. In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.

    That's because they have "professor", "associate professor", &
    "assistant professor"; the last two are informally abbreviated to
    "professor" & the first one is sometimes informally "full professor"
    to distinguish it from the abbreviated forms.

    (I've never been in the army but I understand from M*A*S*H & other
    such sources that "lieutenant colonel" is often abbreviated the same
    way & "full colonel" used informally to make a distinction.)
    --
    Just memorize these shell commands and type them to sync up. If you
    get errors, save your work elsewhere, delete the project, and download
    a fresh copy. <https://xkcd.com/1597/>
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony Cooper@tonycooper214@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 11:48:26 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:57:02 +0100, Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
    wrote:

    On 2026-06-10, Peter Moylan wrote:

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story. In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.

    That's because they have "professor", "associate professor", &
    "assistant professor"; the last two are informally abbreviated to
    "professor" & the first one is sometimes informally "full professor"
    to distinguish it from the abbreviated forms.

    When I was at university, it was before the trend for instructors - of
    any level - to request or allow students to call them by the first
    name. Most students called the person leading the class "Professor".

    (I've never been in the army but I understand from M*A*S*H & other
    such sources that "lieutenant colonel" is often abbreviated the same
    way & "full colonel" used informally to make a distinction.)

    A "full colonel" is informally - but routinely - called a "Bird
    Colonel". The rank badge of a full colonel is an eagle holding
    arrows. A lieutenant colonel's rank badge is a silver oak leaf.

    Drifting a bit...Military rank reminds me of time we were sitting in
    an observation car on train in 1965. (Chicago to Denver) Across the
    aisle was a man in uniform. He and my wife were chatting.

    At one point she asked "What brand are you?". The flummoxed man asked
    what she meant, and she replied - pointing to his uniform - "What
    level are you?".

    "Oh", he said, "you mean 'What rank'. I'm a Brigadier General".

    "That's good, isinit?" replied my wife.

    I kept a straight face. I was discharged as an E-1.


    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From athel.cb@gmail.com@user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 16:54:54 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


    Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> posted:

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:57:02 +0100, Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
    wrote:

    On 2026-06-10, Peter Moylan wrote:

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story. In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.

    That's because they have "professor", "associate professor", &
    "assistant professor"; the last two are informally abbreviated to >"professor" & the first one is sometimes informally "full professor"
    to distinguish it from the abbreviated forms.

    When I was at university, it was before the trend for instructors - of
    any level - to request or allow students to call them by the first
    name. Most students called the person leading the class "Professor".

    That trend was well underway when I started research. When I was an undergraduate (1961-1964) we addressed our principal tutors as Dr Williams
    and Dr Knowles, though amongst ourselves we called them Bob and Jeremy. When
    I started research with Dr Knowles he said "you know what my name is" and
    from then on we called him Jeremy. I don't remember when we started calling
    Dr Williams Bob, but it can't have been much later. At Berkeley for my post-doc, Dr Koshland was Dan from the beginning.

    (I've never been in the army but I understand from M*A*S*H & other
    such sources that "lieutenant colonel" is often abbreviated the same
    way & "full colonel" used informally to make a distinction.)

    A "full colonel" is informally - but routinely - called a "Bird
    Colonel". The rank badge of a full colonel is an eagle holding
    arrows. A lieutenant colonel's rank badge is a silver oak leaf.

    Drifting a bit...Military rank reminds me of time we were sitting in
    an observation car on train in 1965. (Chicago to Denver) Across the
    aisle was a man in uniform. He and my wife were chatting.

    At one point she asked "What brand are you?". The flummoxed man asked
    what she meant, and she replied - pointing to his uniform - "What
    level are you?".

    "Oh", he said, "you mean 'What rank'. I'm a Brigadier General".

    "That's good, isinit?" replied my wife.

    I kept a straight face. I was discharged as an E-1.


    --
    athel

    Living in Marseilles for 39 years; mainly in England before that,
    with long periods in Singapore, California, Chile and Canada
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam Funk@a24061@ducksburg.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 18:31:04 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 2026-06-10, Tony Cooper wrote:

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:57:02 +0100, Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
    wrote:

    On 2026-06-10, Peter Moylan wrote:

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story. In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.

    That's because they have "professor", "associate professor", &
    "assistant professor"; the last two are informally abbreviated to >>"professor" & the first one is sometimes informally "full professor"
    to distinguish it from the abbreviated forms.

    When I was at university, it was before the trend for instructors - of
    any level - to request or allow students to call them by the first
    name. Most students called the person leading the class "Professor".

    IME that was more likely in humanities than engineering, although I
    did have a teacher of numerical methods (for electrical networks) who
    wrote "HYMIE" on the board at the beginning of the term. His name was
    really "Jaime" & I think he was Mexican.


    (I've never been in the army but I understand from M*A*S*H & other
    such sources that "lieutenant colonel" is often abbreviated the same
    way & "full colonel" used informally to make a distinction.)

    A "full colonel" is informally - but routinely - called a "Bird
    Colonel". The rank badge of a full colonel is an eagle holding
    arrows. A lieutenant colonel's rank badge is a silver oak leaf.

    I also know that from M*A*S*H.


    Drifting a bit...Military rank reminds me of time we were sitting in
    an observation car on train in 1965. (Chicago to Denver) Across the
    aisle was a man in uniform. He and my wife were chatting.

    At one point she asked "What brand are you?". The flummoxed man asked
    what she meant, and she replied - pointing to his uniform - "What
    level are you?".

    "Oh", he said, "you mean 'What rank'. I'm a Brigadier General".

    "That's good, isinit?" replied my wife.

    I kept a straight face. I was discharged as an E-1.

    heh
    --
    There's no money in poetry, but there's no poetry in
    money either. ---Robert Graves
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Silvano@Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 21:03:48 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Tony Cooper hat am 10.06.2026 um 17:48 geschrieben:
    Drifting a bit...Military rank reminds me of time we were sitting in
    an observation car on train in 1965. (Chicago to Denver) Across the
    aisle was a man in uniform. He and my wife were chatting.

    At one point she asked "What brand are you?". The flummoxed man asked
    what she meant, and she replied - pointing to his uniform - "What
    level are you?".

    "Oh", he said, "you mean 'What rank'. I'm a Brigadier General".

    "That's good, isinit?" replied my wife.

    I kept a straight face. I was discharged as an E-1.


    Just wondering. How much were you paid per day as an E-1 and at what time?
    I'm asking because I had the lowest or second-lowest rank in the Italian
    army (I can't remember), when I was commanded to act as an interpreter (unusually clever for the Italian army, as I had a university degree as
    an interpreter, much cleverer than their idea I'd become a good
    lorry/truck driver) for US army reserve officers at NATO manoeuvres in
    1983, where we learned to fight battles as in WWI. I found out that I
    got the same money as a US reserve captain. Well, almost the same money.
    I mean, I really do understand that a captain deserves more money than
    someone with one of the lowest ranks, but he got as much PER DAY as I
    got PER MONTH - no comment!

    By the way, what I got per day was just enough to buy the cheapest pizza
    in town - every other day.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony Cooper@tonycooper214@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 16:04:20 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:54:54 GMT, athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:


    Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> posted:

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:57:02 +0100, Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
    wrote:

    On 2026-06-10, Peter Moylan wrote:

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story. In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.

    That's because they have "professor", "associate professor", &
    "assistant professor"; the last two are informally abbreviated to
    "professor" & the first one is sometimes informally "full professor"
    to distinguish it from the abbreviated forms.

    When I was at university, it was before the trend for instructors - of
    any level - to request or allow students to call them by the first
    name. Most students called the person leading the class "Professor".

    That trend was well underway when I started research. When I was an >undergraduate (1961-1964) we addressed our principal tutors as Dr Williams >and Dr Knowles, though amongst ourselves we called them Bob and Jeremy. When >I started research with Dr Knowles he said "you know what my name is" and >from then on we called him Jeremy. I don't remember when we started calling >Dr Williams Bob, but it can't have been much later. At Berkeley for my >post-doc, Dr Koshland was Dan from the beginning.


    A difference in systems. In the US, a "tutor" is an individual a
    student either hires or is appointed to work with to bring the student up-to-speed in a class the student is having trouble with. Tutors can
    be other students that are more proficient in the subject. There are
    adult professional tutors.

    In my time at two universities, I was only in a social setting with
    one Professor. She invited some members of the class to a barbeque at
    her home. The course was an advanced marketing class that dealt with
    buying media advertising time. She invited us to the barbeque where
    her guest was a VP at one of the major NYC advertising agencies. They
    were classmates when she was at university.

    We were instructed to call her by her first name at the barbeque, but
    went back to "Professor (last name)" when back in class.

    BTW...my experience is rather dated now, and based on midwestern
    universities. What the elite eastern schools did or do is beyond my
    ken.

    I did know one invidial socially that was a Professor at UCF, but long
    after I was a student anywhere. He had a Phd in physics, and
    introduced himself as "Dr (last name) and had "Dr (first - last name)
    on his mailbox.

    Two MD doctors were in the same social group. They used to chide him
    by calling him "Dr (last name)" in social conversation. The eyeroll
    was subtle, but there.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony Cooper@tonycooper214@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 16:31:03 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 21:03:48 +0200, Silvano
    <Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it> wrote:

    Tony Cooper hat am 10.06.2026 um 17:48 geschrieben:
    Drifting a bit...Military rank reminds me of time we were sitting in
    an observation car on train in 1965. (Chicago to Denver) Across the
    aisle was a man in uniform. He and my wife were chatting.

    At one point she asked "What brand are you?". The flummoxed man asked
    what she meant, and she replied - pointing to his uniform - "What
    level are you?".

    "Oh", he said, "you mean 'What rank'. I'm a Brigadier General".

    "That's good, isinit?" replied my wife.

    I kept a straight face. I was discharged as an E-1.


    Just wondering. How much were you paid per day as an E-1 and at what time? >I'm asking because I had the lowest or second-lowest rank in the Italian
    army (I can't remember), when I was commanded to act as an interpreter >(unusually clever for the Italian army, as I had a university degree as
    an interpreter, much cleverer than their idea I'd become a good
    lorry/truck driver) for US army reserve officers at NATO manoeuvres in
    1983, where we learned to fight battles as in WWI. I found out that I
    got the same money as a US reserve captain. Well, almost the same money.
    I mean, I really do understand that a captain deserves more money than >someone with one of the lowest ranks, but he got as much PER DAY as I
    got PER MONTH - no comment!

    By the way, what I got per day was just enough to buy the cheapest pizza
    in town - every other day.


    I don't remember, but looking it up I find that an US Army E-1 in 1960
    received $78.00 for the first four months of service, and then $83.20
    a month until they are in for 48 months.

    An Army Captain would be an O-3. To obtain the rank of Captain,
    starting as a 2nd Lieutenant, he/she would have been in the Army for
    at least 3 years and be paid over $400 a month.

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food
    in those days!
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rich Ulrich@rich.ulrich@comcast.net to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 10 17:42:54 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:04:20 -0400, Tony Cooper
    <tonycooper214@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:54:54 GMT, athel.cb@gmail.com ><user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:


    Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> posted:

    On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:57:02 +0100, Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
    wrote:

    On 2026-06-10, Peter Moylan wrote:

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story. In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.

    That's because they have "professor", "associate professor", &
    "assistant professor"; the last two are informally abbreviated to
    "professor" & the first one is sometimes informally "full professor"
    to distinguish it from the abbreviated forms.

    When I was at university, it was before the trend for instructors - of
    any level - to request or allow students to call them by the first
    name. Most students called the person leading the class "Professor".

    That trend was well underway when I started research. When I was an >>undergraduate (1961-1964) we addressed our principal tutors as Dr Williams >>and Dr Knowles, though amongst ourselves we called them Bob and Jeremy. When >>I started research with Dr Knowles he said "you know what my name is" and >>from then on we called him Jeremy. I don't remember when we started calling >>Dr Williams Bob, but it can't have been much later. At Berkeley for my >>post-doc, Dr Koshland was Dan from the beginning.


    A difference in systems. In the US, a "tutor" is an individual a
    student either hires or is appointed to work with to bring the student >up-to-speed in a class the student is having trouble with. Tutors can
    be other students that are more proficient in the subject. There are
    adult professional tutors.

    In my time at two universities, I was only in a social setting with
    one Professor. She invited some members of the class to a barbeque at
    her home. The course was an advanced marketing class that dealt with
    buying media advertising time. She invited us to the barbeque where
    her guest was a VP at one of the major NYC advertising agencies. They
    were classmates when she was at university.

    My experience (1960s) also has the professor/ instructor being apart
    from socializing with students. I can remember certain exceptions, who
    would be the faculty who volunteer to sponsor student organizations.

    IIRC, to be 'official' and thus able to reserve rooms (say) or
    advertise meetings, a group had to jave a 'faculty sponsor' -- my
    political science professor was sponsor for the (radical left) SDS,
    Students for a Democratic Society.


    We were instructed to call her by her first name at the barbeque, but
    went back to "Professor (last name)" when back in class.

    BTW...my experience is rather dated now, and based on midwestern >universities. What the elite eastern schools did or do is beyond my
    ken.

    I did know one invidial socially that was a Professor at UCF, but long
    after I was a student anywhere. He had a Phd in physics, and
    introduced himself as "Dr (last name) and had "Dr (first - last name)
    on his mailbox.

    Two MD doctors were in the same social group. They used to chide him
    by calling him "Dr (last name)" in social conversation. The eyeroll
    was subtle, but there.

    --
    Rich Ulrich
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Silvano@Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 18:12:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Tony Cooper hat am 10.06.2026 um 22:31 geschrieben:
    Just wondering. How much were you paid per day as an E-1 and at what time? >> I'm asking because I had the lowest or second-lowest rank in the Italian
    army (I can't remember), when I was commanded to act as an interpreter
    (unusually clever for the Italian army, as I had a university degree as
    an interpreter, much cleverer than their idea I'd become a good
    lorry/truck driver) for US army reserve officers at NATO manoeuvres in
    1983, where we learned to fight battles as in WWI. I found out that I
    got the same money as a US reserve captain. Well, almost the same money.
    I mean, I really do understand that a captain deserves more money than
    someone with one of the lowest ranks, but he got as much PER DAY as I
    got PER MONTH - no comment!

    By the way, what I got per day was just enough to buy the cheapest pizza
    in town - every other day.


    I don't remember, but looking it up I find that an US Army E-1 in 1960 received $78.00 for the first four months of service, and then $83.20
    a month until they are in for 48 months.

    $ 78.00 per month = $ 2.60 per day. How much did a burger (or the
    cheapest food outside the barracks) cost at that time?


    An Army Captain would be an O-3. To obtain the rank of Captain,
    starting as a 2nd Lieutenant, he/she would have been in the Army for
    at least 3 years and be paid over $400 a month.

    About 5 times as much as an E-1. Much more reasonable difference than 30
    times more, IMHO.


    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food
    in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and
    by then we had pizzerias all over the country.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Bertel Lund Hansen@rundtosset@lundhansen.dk to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 18:30:15 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food
    in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and
    by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, traditional dish.
    --
    Bertel, Kolt, Danmark

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Silvano@Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 19:37:36 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food
    in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and
    by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, traditional dish.


    Italy is bigger than Denmark and its many regional cuisines started
    merging only after WWII.

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    In Milan, on the other hand, it was rather exotic when I was a child.
    But then, I was a friend of the daughter of the owner of the first ever
    Tuscan restaurant in Milan. She'd be almost 90, if she were still alive.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From athel.cb@gmail.com@user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 17:53:35 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


    Silvano <Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it> posted:

    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and >> by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, traditional dish.


    Italy is bigger than Denmark and its many regional cuisines started
    merging only after WWII.

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    In Milan, on the other hand, it was rather exotic when I was a child.
    But then, I was a friend of the daughter of the owner of the first ever Tuscan restaurant in Milan. She'd be almost 90, if she were still alive.

    THe first slice of pizza I ever had was in the main station of Milan in 1964. I don't remember how it compared with the pizzas one encounters nowadays, but
    I have a feeling that I wasn't impressed.

    Some years before that my mother took what was supposed to be a course of Italian cooking, but I suspect that the woman who taught it didn't know much more about Italian cuisine than my mother did. One night we had what she called a Pisa (presumably the pronunciation the teacher used) for dinner. I don't think it had anything much in common with what you'd call a pizza.
    --
    athel

    Living in Marseilles for 39 years; mainly in England before that,
    with long periods in Singapore, California, Chile and Canada
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony Cooper@tonycooper214@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 17:09:07 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Thu, 11 Jun 2026 18:12:47 +0200, Silvano
    <Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it> wrote:

    Tony Cooper hat am 10.06.2026 um 22:31 geschrieben:
    Just wondering. How much were you paid per day as an E-1 and at what time? >>> I'm asking because I had the lowest or second-lowest rank in the Italian >>> army (I can't remember), when I was commanded to act as an interpreter
    (unusually clever for the Italian army, as I had a university degree as
    an interpreter, much cleverer than their idea I'd become a good
    lorry/truck driver) for US army reserve officers at NATO manoeuvres in
    1983, where we learned to fight battles as in WWI. I found out that I
    got the same money as a US reserve captain. Well, almost the same money. >>> I mean, I really do understand that a captain deserves more money than
    someone with one of the lowest ranks, but he got as much PER DAY as I
    got PER MONTH - no comment!

    By the way, what I got per day was just enough to buy the cheapest pizza >>> in town - every other day.


    I don't remember, but looking it up I find that an US Army E-1 in 1960
    received $78.00 for the first four months of service, and then $83.20
    a month until they are in for 48 months.

    $ 78.00 per month = $ 2.60 per day. How much did a burger (or the
    cheapest food outside the barracks) cost at that time?

    I really wouldn't know. I was on active duty for only 6 months (an
    option available at the time) and stationed only at Ft Leonard Wood,
    Missouri.

    During my stint, I had - maybe - four or five weekend passes, and was
    unable to leave the base between passes. Ft Leonard Wood is not
    located near any towns that would have been of interest to visit.

    When I did get a weekend pass, a buddy and I hitchhiked up to
    Columbia, Missouri (about 100 miles away) with high hopes of meeting
    University of Missouri coeds. (Never successful) We stayed in the
    fraternity house I was a member of at Indiana University. Slept and
    ate for free.

    One time we hitchhiked to St Louis, but that was a disaster. Couldn't
    get rides, didn't know anything about the city or where to go. We
    slept and showered in a motel one night for free. We squatted in a
    room vacated by an early-departing paying customer at about 6 AM and
    didn't get chased out until noon.

    I can't remember the price of food, but a bottle of beer could be
    purchased for 25 cents, and that's where our money went.

    An Army Captain would be an O-3. To obtain the rank of Captain,
    starting as a 2nd Lieutenant, he/she would have been in the Army for
    at least 3 years and be paid over $400 a month.

    About 5 times as much as an E-1. Much more reasonable difference than 30 >times more, IMHO.


    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food
    in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and
    by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    After I was discharged, and returned to Chicago where pizza was a
    common meal. Chicago is famous for "deep dish pizza", but I preferred
    the thin crust regular pizza at Uno's and Due's. I think a pizza was
    about $4.50 or $5.00. I could take a date to Uno's and spend - maybe
    - $10 to $12 on beer and pizza for the two of us.




    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Peter Moylan@peter@pmoylan.org to alt.usage.english on Fri Jun 12 09:14:05 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 12/06/26 03:53, athel.cb@gmail.com wrote:

    THe first slice of pizza I ever had was in the main station of Milan
    in 1964. I don't remember how it compared with the pizzas one
    encounters nowadays, but I have a feeling that I wasn't impressed.

    Pizza came to Australia in 1961, but I wasn't aware of it until 1965,
    when I went as a student to Melbourne University. The university is
    directly adjacent to Carlton, a Melbourne suburb which was at the time
    the Italian centre of Melbourne. (To some extent, it still is.) We used
    to walk down to the pizza restaurant and watch the cooks spinning up the
    pizza dough so that it almost hit the ceiling. We rarely went inside;
    students weren't rich enough to afford restaurant meals.
    --
    Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
    Newcastle, NSW
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Mike Spencer@mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 20:29:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


    athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> writes:

    That trend was well underway when I started research. When I was an undergraduate (1961-1964) we addressed our principal tutors as Dr Williams and Dr Knowles, though amongst ourselves we called them Bob and Jeremy. When I started research with Dr Knowles he said "you know what my name is" and from then on we called him Jeremy. I don't remember when we started calling Dr Williams Bob, but it can't have been much later. At Berkeley for my post-doc, Dr Koshland was Dan from the beginning.

    Over a decade in the 80s & 90s, I visited MIT annually to give presentations/seminars/demos on blacksmithing. Helpfully bringing me
    up to speed on local etiquette, Prof. Steinberg explained to me that
    no one was addressed as Doctor. Everybody had a doctorate. Those
    that didn't were so smart that they couldn't be bothered with letting
    drudgery of getting a PhD interfere with their genius. On the other
    hand, actually qualifying to become a professor at MIT was a Big Deal
    and, in any even slightly formal context, it was good to refer to such
    people a Prof. Whoever and address them similarly.

    That said, all the 30 or so students in one of the programs I did
    demos for addressed Prof. Steinberg by his first name. In the other
    group of half a dozen, they did not.
    --
    Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony Cooper@tonycooper214@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 20:25:04 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:14:05 +1000, Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org>
    wrote:

    On 12/06/26 03:53, athel.cb@gmail.com wrote:

    THe first slice of pizza I ever had was in the main station of Milan
    in 1964. I don't remember how it compared with the pizzas one
    encounters nowadays, but I have a feeling that I wasn't impressed.

    Pizza came to Australia in 1961, but I wasn't aware of it until 1965,
    when I went as a student to Melbourne University. The university is
    directly adjacent to Carlton, a Melbourne suburb which was at the time
    the Italian centre of Melbourne. (To some extent, it still is.) We used
    to walk down to the pizza restaurant and watch the cooks spinning up the >pizza dough so that it almost hit the ceiling. We rarely went inside; >students weren't rich enough to afford restaurant meals.

    The most recognized name in pizza in the US is Pizza Hut. The first
    one was opened in 1958 in Witchita, Kansas, but there are now almost
    20,000 franchised locations.

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Snidely@snidely.too@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 11 20:27:05 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Tony Cooper speculated:
    On Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:14:05 +1000, Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org>
    wrote:

    On 12/06/26 03:53, athel.cb@gmail.com wrote:

    THe first slice of pizza I ever had was in the main station of Milan
    in 1964. I don't remember how it compared with the pizzas one
    encounters nowadays, but I have a feeling that I wasn't impressed.

    Pizza came to Australia in 1961, but I wasn't aware of it until 1965,
    when I went as a student to Melbourne University. The university is
    directly adjacent to Carlton, a Melbourne suburb which was at the time
    the Italian centre of Melbourne. (To some extent, it still is.) We used
    to walk down to the pizza restaurant and watch the cooks spinning up the
    pizza dough so that it almost hit the ceiling. We rarely went inside;
    students weren't rich enough to afford restaurant meals.

    The most recognized name in pizza in the US is Pizza Hut. The first
    one was opened in 1958 in Witchita, Kansas, but there are now almost
    20,000 franchised locations.

    The number of sit-down places, which today would be considered "fast
    casual", has shrunk and the proportion of pick-up/delivery locations is
    high. The second most recognized brand would be, AIUI, either
    Domino's or Little Caesar's, neither of which do sit-down.

    A handful of Chuckie Cheese locations remain, which is the playzone
    with pizza.

    /dps
    --
    As a colleague once told me about an incoming manager,
    "He does very well in a suck-up, kick-down culture."
    Bill in Vancouver
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Peter Moylan@peter@pmoylan.org to alt.usage.english on Fri Jun 12 13:56:29 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 12/06/26 13:27, Snidely wrote:
    Tony Cooper speculated:
    On Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:14:05 +1000, Peter Moylan
    <peter@pmoylan.org> wrote:

    On 12/06/26 03:53, athel.cb@gmail.com wrote:

    THe first slice of pizza I ever had was in the main station of
    Milan in 1964. I don't remember how it compared with the
    pizzas one encounters nowadays, but I have a feeling that I
    wasn't impressed.

    Pizza came to Australia in 1961, but I wasn't aware of it until
    1965, when I went as a student to Melbourne University. The
    university is directly adjacent to Carlton, a Melbourne suburb
    which was at the time the Italian centre of Melbourne. (To some
    extent, it still is.) We used to walk down to the pizza
    restaurant and watch the cooks spinning up the pizza dough so
    that it almost hit the ceiling. We rarely went inside; students
    weren't rich enough to afford restaurant meals.

    The most recognized name in pizza in the US is Pizza Hut. The
    first one was opened in 1958 in Witchita, Kansas, but there are
    now almost 20,000 franchised locations.

    The number of sit-down places, which today would be considered "fast
    casual", has shrunk and the proportion of pick-up/delivery locations
    is high. The second most recognized brand would be, AIUI, either
    Domino's or Little Caesar's, neither of which do sit-down.

    A handful of Chuckie Cheese locations remain, which is the playzone
    with pizza.

    Both Pizza Hut and Domino's are very visible here. In fact, Domino's is
    the closest pizza place to me. Both of those chains, though, sell
    poor-quality pizzas. They're stingy on the ingredients, except for their
    most expensive offerings. If I want a pizza, I'll usually look for a
    shop that is not part of a chain or a franchise. The independents
    produce better quality.

    There are exceptions. An independent (I assume) called Nonna's opened
    near my home a year or two ago. We gave it a try, and I was not
    impressed. Part of the problem was that it was staffed entirely by young
    kids -- they're probably sacked when they're old enough for an adult
    wage -- with no supervision by Nonna.

    The pizza place that I mentioned in Carlton didn't do take-away, as far
    as I know. It was a proper sit-down restaurant with real waiters.
    --
    Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
    Newcastle, NSW
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Hibou@vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid to alt.usage.english on Sat Jun 13 06:51:58 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Le 10/06/2026 |a 16:48, Tony Cooper a |-crit :

    Drifting a bit...Military rank reminds me of time we were sitting in
    an observation car on train in 1965. (Chicago to Denver) Across the
    aisle was a man in uniform. He and my wife were chatting.

    At one point she asked "What brand are you?". The flummoxed man asked
    what she meant, and she replied - pointing to his uniform - "What
    level are you?".

    "Oh", he said, "you mean 'What rank'. I'm a Brigadier General".

    "That's good, isinit?" replied my wife.

    I kept a straight face. I was discharged as an E-1.


    That reminds me of a blunder by Arthur Conan Doyle in his humorous tales
    of Brigadier Gerard, who is a high-ranking officer in Napoleon's army -
    but 'brigadier' in the French cavalry of the time was the equivalent of 'corporal'. Oops!

    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigadier_Gerard> <https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigadier#Depuis_le_XIXe_si%C3%A8cle> <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11247>

    As I recall, Gerard was courageous but not very bright, and blundered regularly, but luck always bailed him out. It could be time to read the
    tales again.

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From occam@occam@nowhere.nix to alt.usage.english on Sat Jun 13 08:53:46 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 11/06/2026 19:53, athel.cb@gmail.com wrote:

    Silvano <Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it> posted:

    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>>>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and >>>> by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old,
    traditional dish.


    Italy is bigger than Denmark and its many regional cuisines started
    merging only after WWII.

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    In Milan, on the other hand, it was rather exotic when I was a child.
    But then, I was a friend of the daughter of the owner of the first ever
    Tuscan restaurant in Milan. She'd be almost 90, if she were still alive.

    THe first slice of pizza I ever had was in the main station of Milan in 1964.
    I don't remember how it compared with the pizzas one encounters nowadays, but I have a feeling that I wasn't impressed.

    Some years before that my mother took what was supposed to be a course of Italian cooking, but I suspect that the woman who taught it didn't know much more about Italian cuisine than my mother did. One night we had what she called
    a Pisa (presumably the pronunciation the teacher used) for dinner. I don't think it had anything much in common with what you'd call a pizza.


    Homemade pizzas are always a disappointment to me, unless the home has a wood-burning clay oven in the back yard.


    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From wollman@wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) to alt.usage.english on Sat Jun 13 20:33:32 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    In article <sujm2ltvq7r9v36vqcbu2educnqi2dp92c@4ax.com>,
    Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> wrote:

    The most recognized name in pizza in the US is Pizza Hut. The first
    one was opened in 1958 in Witchita, Kansas, but there are now almost
    20,000 franchised locations.

    Note, however, that there are not many of them in places where good
    pizza is readily available.

    Growing up in northern Vermont in the 1980s, yes, Pizza Hut was where
    you got pizza, unless you ordered delivery from Domino's. But
    anywhere with a large Italian (spec. Sicilian) immigrant community had
    good pizza and little market for Pizza Hut.

    -GAWollman
    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015) --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From occam@occam@nowhere.nix to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 09:05:31 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and >>> by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old,
    traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From RJH@patchmoney@gmx.com to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 08:19:22 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 10 Jun 2026 at 11:50:40 BST, Peter Moylan wrote:

    On 10/06/26 20:21, occam wrote:

    I was pondering the difference between 'a professor' v. 'a teacher' .
    In modern usage a teacher is regarded as the one with the lowlier
    status.

    Going back to source - the definition of the verbs 'to profess' and
    'to teach' - teaching is (in my opinion) the more valued of the two
    functions. You impart your knowledge (teach), rather than to declare
    it publicly (profess).

    https://comparewords.com/profess/teach

    NOTE: The Greek word for teacher is 'didaskalos' (+|+|+|+4-a+|+#++++-e). The >> ancient Greeks, who valued their teachers highly, did not have a
    word for 'professor'. Somewhere along the way, a professor became a
    high-level teacher.

    Baffled of Byzantium

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story.

    Much the same in UK universities - at least post 92s.

    In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.


    It's more a salutation that an official title in the US. And I'm not sure whether something got lost in translation, but even humble lecturers tend to get called 'professor' in most of the non-English speaking countries I've been to.

    Still, your point is valid. We tend to reserve "teacher" for teachers in primary and secondary schools.

    I can think of one reason that drove the change in terminology.
    University academics have two duties: teaching and research. (Plus administration, which consumes more time than the other two combined,
    but is not recognised officially.) Promotion depends almost entirely on
    one's research record, so the teaching aspect is less rewarded. You
    can't be a professor without a distinguished research record. That's the "profess" part of the job.


    Not in post 92s - professorships given out like sweets. At one time you just had to have the bare-faced, shameless, temerity to ask at the place I worked*.

    Hardly anyone cares about whether a professor is a good teacher. In
    fact, students tend to give higher ratings to the more junior ranks.

    Tended to be an inverse relationship IME.

    * well, I exaggerate. A bit.
    --
    Cheers, Rob
    Sheffield, UK
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam Funk@a24061@ducksburg.com to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 13:51:23 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 2026-06-22, occam wrote:

    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>>>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and >>>> by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old,
    traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.


    Maybe the modern post-natal trend developed from a misreading of the
    history of pizza?!
    --
    We seem to understand the value of oil, timber, minerals, and
    housing, but not the value of unspoiled beauty, wildlife,
    solitude, and spiritual renewal. ---Calvin
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From athel.cb@gmail.com@user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 13:24:32 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


    RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com> posted:

    On 10 Jun 2026 at 11:50:40 BST, Peter Moylan wrote:

    On 10/06/26 20:21, occam wrote:

    I was pondering the difference between 'a professor' v. 'a teacher' .
    In modern usage a teacher is regarded as the one with the lowlier
    status.

    Going back to source - the definition of the verbs 'to profess' and
    'to teach' - teaching is (in my opinion) the more valued of the two
    functions. You impart your knowledge (teach), rather than to declare
    it publicly (profess).

    https://comparewords.com/profess/teach

    NOTE: The Greek word for teacher is 'didaskalos' (+|+|+|+4-a+|+#++++-e). The
    ancient Greeks, who valued their teachers highly, did not have a
    word for 'professor'. Somewhere along the way, a professor became a
    high-level teacher.

    Baffled of Byzantium

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are exceptions, but that's the general story.

    Much the same in UK universities - at least post 92s.

    In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.


    It's more a salutation that an official title in the US. And I'm not sure whether something got lost in translation, but even humble lecturers tend to get called 'professor' in most of the non-English speaking countries I've been
    to.

    Still, your point is valid. We tend to reserve "teacher" for teachers in primary and secondary schools.

    I can think of one reason that drove the change in terminology.
    University academics have two duties: teaching and research. (Plus administration, which consumes more time than the other two combined,
    but is not recognised officially.) Promotion depends almost entirely on one's research record, so the teaching aspect is less rewarded. You
    can't be a professor without a distinguished research record. That's the "profess" part of the job.


    Not in post 92s - professorships given out like sweets. At one time you just had to have the bare-faced, shameless, temerity to ask at the place I worked*.

    Hardly anyone cares about whether a professor is a good teacher. In
    fact, students tend to give higher ratings to the more junior ranks.

    Tended to be an inverse relationship IME.

    * well, I exaggerate. A bit.

    Well maybe. Before I left Birmingham in 1987 there were never more than four professors in my large department, with about 30 staff. In later years they seemed to hand out personal chairs to just about anyone who had been there more than a year or two and could write their names.
    --
    athel

    Living in Marseilles for 39 years; mainly in England before that,
    with long periods in Singapore, California, Chile and Canada
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Bertel Lund Hansen@rundtosset@lundhansen.dk to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 16:38:29 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Den 22.06.2026 kl. 10.19 skrev RJH:

    It's more a salutation that an official title in the US. And I'm not sure whether something got lost in translation, but even humble lecturers tend to get called 'professor' in most of the non-English speaking countries I've been
    to.

    I asked my Spanish teacher what a retired school teacher was called in Spanish, and she answered "professor jubilado".
    --
    Bertel, Kolt, Danmark

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From athel.cb@gmail.com@user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 16:39:33 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


    Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> posted:

    Den 22.06.2026 kl. 10.19 skrev RJH:

    It's more a salutation that an official title in the US. And I'm not sure whether something got lost in translation, but even humble lecturers tend to
    get called 'professor' in most of the non-English speaking countries I've been
    to.

    I asked my Spanish teacher what a retired school teacher was called in Spanish, and she answered "professor jubilado".

    A retired anything is jubilado.
    --
    athel

    Living in Marseilles for 39 years; mainly in England before that,
    with long periods in Singapore, California, Chile and Canada
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From wollman@wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 19:42:23 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    In article <1782134672-12588@newsgrouper.org>,
    athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:

    Well maybe. Before I left Birmingham in 1987 there were never more than four >professors in my large department, with about 30 staff. In later years they >seemed to hand out personal chairs to just about anyone who had been there >more than a year or two and could write their names.

    In Canadian universities, it seems like anyone who can manage to get a
    grant gets a chair named after their precise micro-field of study,
    even very junior faculty.[1]

    -GAWollman

    [1] I know there's an actual government program for this.
    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015) --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Plusnet@not@home.com to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 22 22:09:41 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>>>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and >>>> by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old,
    traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a
    pizza?
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From nospam@nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) to alt.usage.english on Tue Jun 23 08:59:28 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef
    Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>>>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and >>>> by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old,
    traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a
    pizza?

    Isn't a 'wall moziac' something like a contradiction in terms?
    (for Roman times)
    Anyway, it is a painting.

    As for 'pizza', if this is one,
    so is every other decorated piece of flat bread,
    like a focaccia for example,

    Jan
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Steve Hayes@hayesstw@telkomsa.net to alt.usage.english on Tue Jun 23 10:53:06 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:19:22 -0000 (UTC), RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com>
    wrote:

    On 10 Jun 2026 at 11:50:40 BST, Peter Moylan wrote:

    On 10/06/26 20:21, occam wrote:

    I was pondering the difference between 'a professor' v. 'a teacher' .
    In modern usage a teacher is regarded as the one with the lowlier
    status.

    Going back to source - the definition of the verbs 'to profess' and
    'to teach' - teaching is (in my opinion) the more valued of the two
    functions. You impart your knowledge (teach), rather than to declare
    it publicly (profess).

    https://comparewords.com/profess/teach

    NOTE: The Greek word for teacher is 'didaskalos' (??????????). The
    ancient Greeks, who valued their teachers highly, did not have a
    word for 'professor'. Somewhere along the way, a professor became a
    high-level teacher.

    Baffled of Byzantium

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story.

    Much the same in UK universities - at least post 92s.

    In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.


    It's more a salutation that an official title in the US. And I'm not sure >whether something got lost in translation, but even humble lecturers tend to >get called 'professor' in most of the non-English speaking countries I've been >to.

    In some Spanish-speaking coutries, it seems, even primary and
    secondary school teachers are referred to as "professors".
    --
    Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
    Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
    Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
    E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From athel.cb@gmail.com@user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid to alt.usage.english on Tue Jun 23 12:51:59 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


    Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> posted:

    On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:19:22 -0000 (UTC), RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com>
    wrote:

    On 10 Jun 2026 at 11:50:40 BST, Peter Moylan wrote:

    On 10/06/26 20:21, occam wrote:

    I was pondering the difference between 'a professor' v. 'a teacher' .
    In modern usage a teacher is regarded as the one with the lowlier
    status.

    Going back to source - the definition of the verbs 'to profess' and
    'to teach' - teaching is (in my opinion) the more valued of the two
    functions. You impart your knowledge (teach), rather than to declare
    it publicly (profess).

    https://comparewords.com/profess/teach

    NOTE: The Greek word for teacher is 'didaskalos' (??????????). The
    ancient Greeks, who valued their teachers highly, did not have a
    word for 'professor'. Somewhere along the way, a professor became a
    high-level teacher.

    Baffled of Byzantium

    It does vary by country. In an Australian university, there is
    traditionally only one professor in a department; the most senior
    academic in that department. The other academics have titles like
    reader, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer. There are
    exceptions, but that's the general story.

    Much the same in UK universities - at least post 92s.

    In an American university,
    many more people are called professors.


    It's more a salutation that an official title in the US. And I'm not sure >whether something got lost in translation, but even humble lecturers tend to >get called 'professor' in most of the non-English speaking countries I've been
    to.

    In some Spanish-speaking coutries, it seems, even primary and
    secondary school teachers are referred to as "professors".

    Secondary, certainly; primary, I don't know. In 1980 I was invited to teach
    a course at the Catholic University of Chile, at a time when my Spanish was weak to the point of nonexistent. The organizer asked the participants to complete forms indicating their names and occupations. One of them wrote "Profesor" as his occupation. When I asked the organizer what that meant he said it just meant that he was a schoolteacher.

    But there is no reason to be surprised at that. Why should we expect similar- looking words to have the same meanings in different languages when they don't even have the same meanings in different English-speaking countries?
    --
    athel

    Living in Marseilles for 39 years; mainly in England before that,
    with long periods in Singapore, California, Chile and Canada
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Plusnet@not@home.com to alt.usage.english on Tue Jun 23 23:00:27 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:
    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef >>>>>>> Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>>>>>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and >>>>>> by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old,
    traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200 >>>> years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a
    pizza?

    Isn't a 'wall moziac' something like a contradiction in terms?
    (for Roman times)
    Anyway, it is a painting.

    As for 'pizza', if this is one,
    so is every other decorated piece of flat bread,
    like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam Funk@a24061@ducksburg.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 24 08:44:24 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:

    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:
    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef >>>>>>>> Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food >>>>>>>> in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, and
    by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, >>>>>> traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200 >>>>> years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a
    pizza?

    Isn't a 'wall moziac' something like a contradiction in terms?
    (for Roman times)
    Anyway, it is a painting.

    As for 'pizza', if this is one,
    so is every other decorated piece of flat bread,
    like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?
    --
    I don't care if you think the earth is flat.
    --Gene Simmons
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Hibou@vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 24 08:53:09 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Le 22/06/2026 |a 22:09, Sam Plusnet a |-crit :

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a pizza?


    'Pompeii archaeologists discover "pizza" painting' - <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66031341>

    Easy to draw, just a pizza cake?

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Peter Moylan@peter@pmoylan.org to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 24 20:40:09 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 24/06/26 17:44, Adam Funk wrote:
    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:
    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:

    As for 'pizza', if this is one, so is every other decorated
    piece of flat bread, like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?

    Pizza is just the Italian word for "pie". Apparently the Italians from
    one region liked pies of a certain kind, and their recipe got exported
    to other countries. No doubt there are other regions with different kinds of pizze, but we didn't get to hear about those.
    --
    Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
    Newcastle, NSW
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From occam@occam@nowhere.nix to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 24 14:16:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 24/06/2026 12:40, Peter Moylan wrote:
    On 24/06/26 17:44, Adam Funk wrote:
    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:
    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:

    As for 'pizza', if this is one, so is every other decorated
    piece of flat bread, like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?

    Pizza is just the Italian word for "pie". Apparently the Italians from
    one region liked pies of a certain kind, and their recipe got exported
    to other countries. No doubt there are other regions with different
    kinds of
    pizze, but we didn't get to hear about those.


    ...because the Italians who emigrated to the US were from the poor south (Napoli, Sicily). Don't underestimate the role of Italian-Americans in
    the popularisation of Pizza-as-we-know-it. Left to the European
    Italians, pizza would probably be a little known S. Italian take-away.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Snidely@snidely.too@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 24 11:53:02 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Wednesday, Adam Funk queried:
    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:

    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:
    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef >>>>>>>>> Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign >>>>>>>>> food in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the Eighties, >>>>>>>> and by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, >>>>>>> traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about 200 >>>>>> years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a >>>> pizza?

    Isn't a 'wall moziac' something like a contradiction in terms?
    (for Roman times)
    Anyway, it is a painting.

    As for 'pizza', if this is one,
    so is every other decorated piece of flat bread,
    like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?

    Next: calzone

    -d
    --
    potstickers, Japanese gyoza, Chinese dumplings, let's do it
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Ross Clark@benlizro@ihug.co.nz to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 25 09:29:32 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 24/06/2026 10:40 p.m., Peter Moylan wrote:
    On 24/06/26 17:44, Adam Funk wrote:
    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:
    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:

    As for 'pizza', if this is one, so is every other decorated
    piece of flat bread, like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?

    Pizza is just the Italian word for "pie". Apparently the Italians from
    one region liked pies of a certain kind, and their recipe got exported
    to other countries. No doubt there are other regions with different
    kinds of
    pizze, but we didn't get to hear about those.


    Hmm. "Pie", for English speakers, is a pastry with some sort of filling.
    My tiny Italian dictionary gives "torta" and "pasticcio" as translations
    for "pie". "Pizza" seems more likely related to "pitta", a kind of
    flatbread. This site gives some more detail, and references a journal
    article (in Italian) which I'm not about to go looking for.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20030115224054/http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/pizza.html

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Plusnet@not@home.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 24 23:33:53 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 24/06/2026 19:53, Snidely wrote:
    On Wednesday, Adam Funk queried:
    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:

    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:
    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town?-a In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef >>>>>>>>>> Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic >>>>>>>>>> foreign food in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the
    Eighties, and by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, >>>>>>>> traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish,
    about 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    -a From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for >>>>>> pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae'-a has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a >>>>> pizza?

    Isn't a 'wall moziac' something like a contradiction in terms?
    (for Roman times)
    Anyway, it is a painting.

    As for 'pizza', if this is one,
    so is every other decorated piece of flat bread,
    like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?

    Next: calzone

    Pass. We don't have zoning laws like the US.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Snidely@snidely.too@gmail.com to alt.usage.english on Wed Jun 24 15:38:28 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Sam Plusnet scribbled something on Wednesday the 6/24/2026:
    On 24/06/2026 19:53, Snidely wrote:
    On Wednesday, Adam Funk queried:
    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:

    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:
    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town?a In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef >>>>>>>>>>> Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign >>>>>>>>>>> food in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the >>>>>>>>>> Eighties, and by then we had pizzerias all over the country. >>>>>>>>>
    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, >>>>>>>>> traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about >>>>>>>> 200
    years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    a From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for >>>>>>> pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae'a has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or >>>>>> possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a >>>>>> pizza?

    Isn't a 'wall moziac' something like a contradiction in terms?
    (for Roman times)
    Anyway, it is a painting.

    As for 'pizza', if this is one,
    so is every other decorated piece of flat bread,
    like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?

    Next: calzone

    Pass. We don't have zoning laws like the US.

    Some shops have stromboli, eh?

    -d
    --
    "It wasn't just a splash in the pan"
    -- lectricbikes.com
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Ross Clark@benlizro@ihug.co.nz to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 25 11:41:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 25/06/2026 9:29 a.m., Ross Clark wrote:
    On 24/06/2026 10:40 p.m., Peter Moylan wrote:
    On 24/06/26 17:44, Adam Funk wrote:
    On 2026-06-23, Sam Plusnet wrote:
    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:

    As for 'pizza', if this is one, so is every other decorated
    piece of flat bread, like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Well, pizza is a kind of open-faced sandwich, right?

    Pizza is just the Italian word for "pie". Apparently the Italians from
    one region liked pies of a certain kind, and their recipe got exported
    to other countries. No doubt there are other regions with different
    kinds of
    pizze, but we didn't get to hear about those.


    Hmm. "Pie", for English speakers, is a pastry with some sort of filling.
    My tiny Italian dictionary gives "torta" and "pasticcio" as translations
    for "pie". "Pizza" seems more likely related to "pitta", a kind of flatbread. This site gives some more detail, and references a journal article (in Italian) which I'm not about to go looking for.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20030115224054/http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/pizza.html


    Oh well, here's OED:

    < Italian regional (Naples) pizza (1531), of uncertain origin,
    apparently originally from the region of Abruzzo and its vicinity;
    perhaps < an unattested Langobardic cognate of Old High German bizzo
    bite, piece bitten off, morsel, lump, cake made of flour (see bit n.2 & adj.2). Compare post-classical Latin piza, pizza flat bread (from 997 in central Italian sources; also in 14th cent. as pissa), flat bread,
    apparently with a topping of cheese (14th cent. in central Italian
    sources). Compare pitta n.2


    Etymology of pitta n.2 ("A flat, hollow, slightly leavened bread
    originally common in Middle Eastern countriesis...") is much messier,
    though the action centers on the Balkan region. Apart from the Germanic (Langobardic) theory mentioned in the above link, ultimate origins have
    been proposed in long-extinct Illyrian (ancestor of Albanian?) and Old Aramaic.

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From nospam@nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 25 09:44:42 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 23/06/2026 07:59, J. J. Lodder wrote:
    Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

    On 22/06/2026 08:05, occam wrote:
    On 11/06/2026 19:37, Silvano wrote:
    Bertel Lund Hansen hat am 11.06.2026 um 18:30 geschrieben:
    Den 11.06.2026 kl. 18.12 skrev Silvano:

    Pizza in town? In any town near Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, Chef >>>>>>> Boyardee's Spaghetti-Os would have been considered exotic foreign food
    in those days!

    In most of Italy too, in 1960. But I was talking about the
    Eighties, and by then we had pizzerias all over the country.

    Is pazza a recent invention in Italy? I thought that it was an old, >>>>> traditional dish.

    <snip>

    In and near Naples, pizza is indeed an old, traditional dish, about
    200 years old in its present form, as you can read here:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza>.

    From that page:

    "Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for
    pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey)."

    'Placentae' has come a long way since ancient Greek times.

    I thought there was a wall mozaic discovered recently at Pompei (or
    possibly Herculaneum) which showed something which looked quite like a
    pizza?

    Isn't a 'wall moziac' something like a contradiction in terms?
    (for Roman times)
    Anyway, it is a painting.

    As for 'pizza', if this is one,
    so is every other decorated piece of flat bread,
    like a focaccia for example,

    This is perilously close to starting a thread akin to the great
    "What is (and what is not) a sandwich."

    Wasn't that a pondian war caused by someone insisting
    that burgers can be sandwiches?

    Jan
    (failing memories, lets forget about it)
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam Funk@a24061@ducksburg.com to alt.usage.english on Thu Jun 25 12:21:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 2026-06-24, Ross Clark wrote:

    On 25/06/2026 9:29 a.m., Ross Clark wrote:

    Hmm. "Pie", for English speakers, is a pastry with some sort of filling.
    My tiny Italian dictionary gives "torta" and "pasticcio" as translations
    for "pie". "Pizza" seems more likely related to "pitta", a kind of
    flatbread. This site gives some more detail, and references a journal
    article (in Italian) which I'm not about to go looking for.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20030115224054/http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/pizza.html


    Oh well, here's OED:

    < Italian regional (Naples) pizza (1531), of uncertain origin,
    apparently originally from the region of Abruzzo and its vicinity;
    perhaps < an unattested Langobardic cognate of Old High German bizzo
    bite, piece bitten off, morsel, lump, cake made of flour (see bit n.2 & adj.2). Compare post-classical Latin piza, pizza flat bread (from 997 in central Italian sources; also in 14th cent. as pissa), flat bread, apparently with a topping of cheese (14th cent. in central Italian
    sources). Compare pitta n.2

    That's a lot more complicated than I was expecting.


    Etymology of pitta n.2 ("A flat, hollow, slightly leavened bread
    originally common in Middle Eastern countriesis...") is much messier,
    though the action centers on the Balkan region. Apart from the Germanic (Langobardic) theory mentioned in the above link, ultimate origins have
    been proposed in long-extinct Illyrian (ancestor of Albanian?) and Old Aramaic.
    --
    I only regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country.
    ---Abbie Hoffman
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2