Re: USAGE : English past tense and participle in -et

Tim May scripsit:

> If I was, say, processing documents or peeling potatoes or what have
> you, I might say something like "After I finish these, I have that lot
> over there to do, and then I'm finished".  (This doesn't carry any
> connotation of auctions or divisions of land.)
That feels Brit to me, and I'd be more likely to use "batch" instead.
But in either case the noun is not semantically bleached, just a little
displaced.  ("Batch" was originally the resultative of "bake".)

"Lot" has an interesting trail of semantic shift, BTW: "thing used to
determine a question by chance" > "the act of so determining" > "share" >
"portion of land" > "group of things sold together" > "considerable
quantity of things".  All these meanings are current: the first two are
reflected in the word "lottery".

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them
alive again from the water. I came from the end of a bag, but no bag
went over me.  I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am
Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider.  --Bilbo to Smaug