Hawkwind mailing list, new from Hawkeye

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On tis 23 mar 1999 10.27 +0000 "Dave Berry" <daveb at HARLEQUIN.CO.UK> wrote:
> At 09:03 23/03/99 -0000, Adrian Parr wrote:
>>"Compliment" or "complement" - you know what i mean.
>>It's like "colour" or "color"
>
> Not really -- "colour" and "color" have the same meaning, and differ by
> culture.  Seeing one where you expect the other only means that the writer
> is from the other side of the pond.  "Compliment" and "complement" have
> different meanings.  Seeing one where you expect the other is confusing.

     True.  Dave hat recht. The word "compliment" was originally
spelled "complement"--both stem from the same root--but the
different spellings have marked different meanings for some time
now.  (Though as a medievalist, I've no business supporting
standardized spellings :)

Cheers,
Carl, standing in for Mr. Language Person

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/