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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 13:55:21 GMT
Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 16, 2008 13:55:21 GMT
Bringing together strands from several places ...
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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 13:55:33 GMT
Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 16, 2008 13:55:33 GMT
Paul, Just to add my two-pennyworth's to the consensus. All the colours, as is, are fine for me. G-E.
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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 13:59:36 GMT
Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 16, 2008 13:59:36 GMT
Oh, I can't say I've heard of the construction (and can't therefore quote an accepted example), but I question whether that means we can't have it. After all, my example of a whole omelette's-worth of mushrooms came naturally - and had it been enough mushrooms for two omelettes ... I wouldn't say two omelette worths of mushrooms (to follow your pattern of singular adjectives) - would you? We could say two omelettes-worth of mushrooms - but that's not quite the same thing! It's the plural-once-removed of one omelette-worth, and I started with the possessive one omelette's worth ... which (I think ...) is perfectly valid!
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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 14:19:16 GMT
Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 16, 2008 14:19:16 GMT
Well, the Reader's Digest thread started off with drivers'-ed, which I don't think is valid. It seems that the most tempting place to use s'- it would be with the suffix worth, as in Dave's two omelettes'-worth.
Worth has long puzzled me. Are there words like poundsworth, dollarsworth (dictionaries don't seem to think so) and therefore, by extension omlettesworth?
Or is it pounds-worth, pound's-worth or pounds'-worth?
I maintain that worth is simply a word in its own right, not a suffix, and needs no hyphen.
So G-E's would be two penny's worth or two pennies' worth and Dave's would be two omelette's worth or two omelettes' worth.
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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 14:38:48 GMT
Post by Alan Palmer on Jun 16, 2008 14:38:48 GMT
... So G-E's would be two penny's worth or two pennies' worth and Dave's would be two omelette's worth or two omelettes' worth. Or two penn'orth or two omelette'orth?
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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 14:45:33 GMT
Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 16, 2008 14:45:33 GMT
Now you're just causing trouble, Alan!
I'm reminded (by the Mens/Mens's question on the APS) that we say men's clothing but menswear -- that is, the apostrophe is dropped when forming compound words; I tend to think the same applies with hyphenated words.
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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 15:08:57 GMT
Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 16, 2008 15:08:57 GMT
Dictionaries seem to recognise pennyworth (not pennysworth) as "an amount that can be bought for one penny" but not poundworth, poundsworth, dollarsworth and so on. So I think we have to conclude that pennyworth was a special formation (like tuppence and thruppence) which is unlikely to be repeated.
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Worth
Jun 16, 2008 16:09:30 GMT
Post by SusanB on Jun 16, 2008 16:09:30 GMT
I would accept: - a catsworth of fur - a studentworth of essays so it's probably better if I don't comment. However, I can't explain why I would have an 's' in the first example, but not in the second, when clearly neither actually exist.
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Worth
Jun 17, 2008 8:09:57 GMT
Post by Dave on Jun 17, 2008 8:09:57 GMT
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Worth
Jun 17, 2008 8:38:39 GMT
Post by Dave M on Jun 17, 2008 8:38:39 GMT
Agreed, Dave - and I'd be quite happy to write two pounds' worth.
However, I still feel there's something different about "a whole omelette's-worth" that causes me to write the hyphen in there: the former talks of something WORTH two pounds (a direct value assessment) and is pronounced as separate words. The latter is said all-in-a-run (without which pronunciation it carries a subtly different meaning) and forms a noun in a different way: we are not saying the the mushrooms are WORTH a whole omelette; we're saying that they comprise a single omelette's-worth.
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Worth
Jun 17, 2008 9:05:45 GMT
Post by Vadim on Jun 17, 2008 9:05:45 GMT
What about the classic usage I frequently use around the building:
Jobs worth?
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Worth
Jun 17, 2008 9:44:50 GMT
Post by Dave on Jun 17, 2008 9:44:50 GMT
I agree with your hyphenation. I was pointing out that we use cents in place of the British pennies.
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Worth
Jun 17, 2008 10:43:01 GMT
Post by Dave M on Jun 17, 2008 10:43:01 GMT
> I agree with your hyphenation <
Good Oh! Now ... if there were enough for several omelettes ... can we have many omelettes'-worth of mushrooms?
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Worth
Jun 17, 2008 11:08:23 GMT
Post by Tone on Jun 17, 2008 11:08:23 GMT
> (for Tone LINKS)<
Thanks, Dave. But the noo bloo works well.
Tone
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Worth
Jun 17, 2008 14:14:35 GMT
Post by Barry on Jun 17, 2008 14:14:35 GMT
What about the classic usage I frequently use around the building:
Jobs worth?
I think that these days it's normally contracted to jobsworth. In fact, it's already a noun made from the abbreviation of a phrase; such persons are likely to say (when requested to do something): "sorry, mate, I can't do that, it's more than my job's worth" (so, not a possessive apostrophe, but one put in to indicate the missing letter i). Technically, therefore, it should be job's worth, but I think the more contemporary contraction to one word allows the dropping of the letter-omission apostrophe.
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