I was trying to talk British today, and when my husband asked me where something was, I said, "the door but one" because I hear people use expressions like this and was just parroting it. Then I realized that I don't really know what it means. It's used in old British movies like A Christmas Carol so I've heard it used there too -- but what does it really mean?
"It's not the one next to it," my husband explained, "but one over."
I scratched my head. Then he began to point to cabinet doors. "See this?" he said. "This is the first one. This is the second one. The third one is the 'next but one' by which I mean, one less."
Do you get it?
4 comments:
I think the actual phrase is next-door-but-one.
Not next door, but next door to that
Thanks for the comment, R. I think I'm just going to have to refrain from even attempting to say this turn of phrase from now on as I am so confused.
It's probably an evolutionary reflection of the gloomy environment in the people Elizabeth. As the clouds obscure the sun, so does Brit English obscure clear meaning. That's why Americans had to reform the language.
> That's why Americans had to reform the language.
... and a p*ss-poor job they made of it, too! Which is why very few in the anglophone world care one iota about the tiny number of reforms that the pusillanimous Noah Webster introduced.
As for the prepositional meaning of 'but', Merriam-Webster seems to prove that this usage is not unknown in the USA.
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