Date:  Wed, 22 Feb 1995 17:59:06 -0500

From:  "Cathy C. Bodin" <cbodin[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSMARY.EDU>

Subject: Re: "different than"



    A general query:

Can anyone provide a chronology of "different than" in American English?

I have observed it to be highly geographical and chronological: few

over 50, at least in the mid-Atlantic, and fewer Southerners yet would

say anything but "different from," on the model of the verbal expression

"this differs from that."

    I thought James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (1950?)

contained the earliest printed mention of "different than" but later

found an earlier work, whose name I can't remember.

    Can anyone shed some light?   --Cathy Bodin cbodin[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msmary.edu