My little 'American/British Dictionary' gives for the
American word: "Table. v - to set aside a motion
rather than discuss it. This is the exact opposite of the meaning in
Britain." I have seen meetings thrown into confusion. The idea
in the US is that the paper or whatever is put on a side-table.
These differences are less stark in Australia, which under
the influence of film and television tends to borrow, often inconsistently,
from both sources. An example is 'waders' versus 'shorebirds'. [Wikipedia:
‘Waders, called shorebirds in North America (where “wader”
is used to refer to long-legged birds such as storks and herons), are members
of the order Charadriiformes.’]
I notice in official publications in Australia ‘shorebirds’
is often preferred these days. However in inland Canberra local usage is
almost invariably ‘waders’. You rarely hear ‘I can see
a shorebird just to the left of that pelican’.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Leonard [
Sent: Friday, 18 May 2007 3:24 PM
To: Geoffrey Dabb
Subject: Raven caching a golfball
What does 'tabling' a document mean in the US,
suppressing it?
John Leonard
On 5/18/07, Geoffrey Dabb <>
wrote:
>
>
>
> An albatross is a score on a hole that is 3 strokes
less than par for the
> hole. In the US this is more often known as a
'double eagle' (scored by
> Peter Lonard in a recent tournament), being another
example of diverging
> usage, although not as bad as 'table (a document)'
or 'fulsome', where
> meanings on each side of the Atlantic are the
opposite of one another.
>
>
>
> This reminds me to report that I could find no sign
of the Powerful Owl this
> morning. If it is to be refound Canberra
birdwatchers might need to reverse
> their natural tendency to concentrate their numbers
at the most specific
> point possible, and fan out a bit.
>
>
>
>
> From: Philip Veerman [
> Sent: Thursday, 17 May 2007 2:25 PM
> To: Bill & Jenny Handke;
> Subject: [canberrabirds] Raven caching a golfball
>
>
>
>
> Bill's story and theory about possible preferences
of golf balls, sort of
> suggests (to me) the thought that what one raven
might do, they all would do
> similarly and that they may or may not show
preference for a particular
> colour. It ain't necessarily so. Bill's story can
also be interpreted that
> the raven could not carry two balls together and
preferred to retain the one
> it had already been trying to crack, before starting
on a new one. I'd
> suggest there is a lot of randomness in this kind of
behaviour. In the long
> term view, round white egg sized objects that are
not food or stones are
> something new. The birds may have variable levels of
ability to learn but
> still have a long way to go.
>
>
>
>
>
> Is this why golfers use words: birdie, eagle and
albatross (whatever that
> is)?
>
>
>
>
>
> Philip
>
>
