On Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:05:09 +0000, Mark McIntyre <markmcintyre@spamcop.net>
wrote:
: On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 13:53:41 -0500, in alt.internet.wireless ,
: "ISPgeek" <ispgeek@SPAMMENOTispgeeks.com> wrote:
:
: >Originally these two spellings were used interchangeably, but they have come
: >to be distinguished from each other in modern times.
:
: Which two spellings? You yet again removed all context.

Actually, he didn't; but his signature is placed so that the quoted context
fell below the sig marker. Maybe your newsreader stripped it off.

: Complement and compliment are two quite distinct words, one
: originating from "complete" and the other from "comply". There's no
: evidence I'm aware of that they were ever interchangeable, and indeed
: it'd be surprising since they have quite different meanings.

I don't dare jump into that controversy. I know only a few words of French,
and my Latin is in the distant past. But at least you've got to give ISPgeek
credit for tightening up his prose and demonstrating that indeed he can (in
the words of my college linguistics professor) "spell like a gentleman". Even
after almost 400 years, we colonials don't like to embarrass ourselves in
front of a Brit. ;^)

Bob