Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 07:37:03 -0700 From: Bruce Gelder 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 "Different than" has been in print fairly widely throughout the U.S. and in Britain since either the 17th century or the 18th century, and self- proclaimed usage experts have been condemning it ever since. I don't have any citations with me right now, but I'll try to dig some up in the next day or so, unless other people beat me to it. Bruce Gelder bgelder[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]camel.sim.es.com