Timeline for Proper usage of the word since
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 16, 2020 at 9:11 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| Jan 17, 2014 at 16:38 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I may be clutching at straws, but if the reference is to a state, doesn't it usually mean the relative precise point in time when that state ended? Or perhaps, started, which is what I'd probably understand by "Mosquitoes have been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth". Maybe the problem is just that since and ago are a bit too much "the same, only different", so they just don't go well together. | |
| Jan 17, 2014 at 15:55 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @FumbleFingers Lemme ruminate on that one ... my first reaction is that states work as well as events: "Since his youth", "Since Nixon was president". | |
| Jan 17, 2014 at 15:35 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Well, as it happens, all our examples are since [some point in past time], but in practice it might make more sense to say the basic usage is since [some prior event]. Specific dates (1848, December, last Tuesday, etc.) are more easily envisaged as "events" (capable of being identified on a calendar) than something like several years ago. If @JiK is indeed a "learner", he's a very advanced one who probably doesn't need my advice on this specific issue, but for the benefit of anyone else who might read this thread, I think it's worth noting that we [as natives]] don't like it. | |
| Jan 17, 2014 at 12:32 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @FumbleFingers I don't much like it either, but it's hard to know where you can draw a line that excludes "since MM of years ago" and includes "since the species arose MM of years ago". | |
| Jan 17, 2014 at 6:12 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @StoneyB: Technically speaking I suppose you're right that "millions of years ago" identifies a "point" in time, so in principle it could be referenced by since. But precisely because it's such a "fuzzy" point in time, I'd have to say I don't like the usage much. Actually, if I'm honest, I don't think I'm keen on any variants of since [some length of time] ago. | |
| Jan 16, 2014 at 18:09 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @JiK That's fine, because "millions of years ago" identifies a "point" in time: RightNow minus millions of years. It's a very fuzzy point, but it's a point :) | |
| Jan 16, 2014 at 18:07 | comment | added | JiK | What about "since millions of years ago"? | |
| Jan 16, 2014 at 17:55 | history | edited | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 3 characters in body
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| Jan 16, 2014 at 15:02 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Jan 16, 2014 at 14:20 | history | answered | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |