On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:44:29 +0100, Steve Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>Terry Hancock wrote:
>> On Friday 07 October 2005 03:01 am, Steve Holden wrote:
>>
>>>OK, so how do you account for the execresence "That will give you a
>>>savings of 20%", which usage is common in America?
>>
>>
>> In America, anyway, "savings" is a collective abstract noun
>> (like "physics" or "mechanics"), there's no such
>> noun as "saving" (that's present participle of "to save"
>> only). How did you expect that sentence to be rendered?
>> Why is it an "execresence"?
>>
>Precisely because there *is* such a thing as a saving. If I buy a $100
>gumball for $80 I have achieved a saving of 20%.
FWIW, my dictionary has a usage note:
/Savings/ (plural noun) is not preceded by the singular /a/, except
loosely:"The price represents a savings (properly /saving/) of ten
dollars." In the foregoing, considered as an example in writing,
/savings/ is unacceptable to 89 per cent the Usage Panel.
(Words enclosed in /slashes/ represent italics.)
The dictionary? "The American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language, New College Edition."
Still sounds wrong to me, though.
-=Dave
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