Sabre

I like it JT442! It reminds me of a joke told by my French teacher:
There was a Frenchman who wanted to visit England but was determined to first learn every little nuance of the English language; pronunciations, odd spellings; the lot. Eventually, after many years of study he thought himself ready and boarded a boat for Dover. As they entered the harbour he saw an hoarding advertising the following: “Walls Sausages! Pronounced Delicious!!!” He shot himself.
With apologies,
Jim

Hi John,
I’d remembered your mention of the LeSabre, but I’d forgotten you’d pointed out the direct connection and that it came later (as seen in the linked thread). Thanks for the reminder!

I’d also remembered more useful input, like Brad’s note on US official documentation, and forgotten the extensive American regional wibble. I guess more solid information, such as paperwork relating to the NAA naming process would be interesting.

Regards,

There’s US precedent for the use of the term Sabre by Buick (Le Sabre) and that’s your clue.

But you’re aware that the aircraft predated the car.
The auto (Buick first used the name in 1951 for what we’d call a “concept car” today) was named after the plane.

As a footnote to this discussion, I have been sent the following:

An ode of English Plural

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing,
grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and
get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship…
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and
in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop?

Thanks James!
Jim

No problem Jim. Found the original discussion now WIX is working again. There’s less conclusion and more chaff than I recalled, but for what it’s worth, here it is:

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=32328

I initiated a very interesting discussion on this very question a year or so ago on WIX (unfortunately not available right now). Some interesting items came out.

There’s US precedent for the use of the term Sabre by Buick (Le Sabre) and that’s your clue. ‘Sabre’ is actually French, and the British English use is of the French term, whereas there is some ‘normalisation’ spelling of Saber in the US when the original term is not in use, in line with US spelling conventions. In other words, when importing the word, it’s Sabre.

Very succinctly put. Many thanks!
Jim

Have to make spelling as simple as possible for the colonials across the pond…;)

I initiated a very interesting discussion on this very question a year or so ago on WIX (unfortunately not available right now). Some interesting items came out.

There’s US precedent for the use of the term Sabre by Buick (Le Sabre) and that’s your clue. ‘Sabre’ is actually French, and the British English use is of the French term, whereas there is some ‘normalisation’ spelling of Saber in the US when the original term is not in use, in line with US spelling conventions. In other words, when importing the word, it’s Sabre.

Given that the word is originally French, and the English language adopted the complete word, as spelt “Sabre”, its only right that the Americans should spell it properly. Let them color/colour in using their fiber/fibre tip pens in the center/centre………..