birding-aus

RE: v(.) versus vs

To: "Paul Dodd" <>, <>
Subject: RE: v(.) versus vs
From:
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:40:39 +1000
V interesting, Paul ;) It confirms what I thought - that v, with or without the 
full stop, has been long been in use.

Regards
Frank
-----Original message-----
From: "Paul Dodd" 
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:02:53 +1000
To: "'Rob Geraghty'"  
Subject: Accipiter v Accipiter

> For a little bit of fun I thought I'd contribute to this debate...
> 
> Initially I thought that the distinction between "v" and "vs" as
> abbreviations was that legal practitioners tended to use "v" and
> sportspeople and others used "vs". Checking through the various documents
> from solicitors in the various cases that I've been involved in over the
> years (as a business owner, not a criminal!), in cases where my company has
> been the plaintiff, the documents are addressed as ...... (plaintiff) v.
> ...... (defendant) - where v. is the abbreviation for "versus", obviously.
> Curiously when my company is the defendant, the documents are addressed as
> ...... (defendant) a.t.s. ...... (plaintiff) - where a.t.s. is an
> abbreviation of "at the suit of" - an English expression!
> 
> I then searched my mind for the Latin that I learnt at school many years
> ago. And in almost every case the common convention for the abbreviation of
> Latin expressions is the initial letter of each word followed by a period.
> For example:
> 
> e.g. exempli gratia (for example)
> i.e. id est (that is)
> q.e.d quod erat demonstrandum (which was to be shown or demonstrated)
> A.D. Anno Domini (in the Year of the Lord)
> 
> Modern usage tends to omit the periods between the letters, and often the
> period at the end.
> 
> So what about "etc"? This is actually a concatenation of a Latin word "et"
> (meaning "and") and the abbreviation for another Latin word "cetera"
> (meaning "other unspecified things"). Over the years "et" and "c." have
> merged into "etc." or "etc".
> 
> For the religious Christian-minded, another well-known Latin abbreviation is
> "INRI" - Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
> Jews). Curiously, this phrase is often written without periods.
> 
> Other Latin phrases are used today without abbreviation including "ad hoc",
> "ab initio", "ad infinitum", "annus horribilis", and so on.
> 
> The only odd phrase I could find was "ad lib", which is a shortened form of
> "ad libitum" (at one's pleasure). A little more research indicated this
> phrase was always "ad libitum" until either 1919 or 1925 in America,
> depending on the reference one believes, when the phrase "adlib" was coined,
> as one word.
> 
> 
> So, in short, the "proper" abbreviation of "versus" is "v." with "vs" being
> a much more recent adoption.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
>  On Behalf Of Rob Geraghty
> Sent: Tuesday, 9 June 2009 9:18 AM
> To: 
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Accipiter v Accipiter
> 
> 
> Just a point of pedantry not related to birding - can anyone tell me when it
> became common to concatenate "versus" to "v" rather than "vs"?  I am
> guessing it's something advertisers began to make headlines narrower, a bit
> like the new habit of leaving out the words "hundred" and "thousand" in
> advertising to make 17,990 sound smaller.
> 
> This is not a criticism of anyone on the list.  I'm honestly curious if
> anyone noticed when this use of "v" began.
> 
> Rob
> 
> PS Ob-birding: miserable weekend for birding in Canberra. Cold, windy, and
> the birds had very sensibly looked elsewhere for shelter. :(
> =======
> Rob Geraghty
> 
> 
> 
> 
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