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From: den@festival.ed.ac.uk (David E Newton)
Subject: Re: Second, rhymes with abscond!
References: <3d2s7t$4ai@dekalb.DC.PeachNet.EDU>
Message-ID: <D12E0p.I4p@festival.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Edinburgh University
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 15:36:24 GMT
Lines: 39

daddleto@dekalb.dc.peachnet.edu (david f addleton,g* acbu,*,4) writes:
> Whence the word `second', a verb, pronounced to rhyme with `abscond'?
> 
> My dad showed up last year from a career on the Indian subcontinent using 
> the word as in "My neighbor seconded my servant and used him for his own 
> purposes" or "Clinton seconded a few state troopers to guard his hotel 
> room for illicit purposes"  -- these sentences are used to illustrate the 
> word and not to make any true or false statements about their subjects!
> 
> I've never seen nor heard the word used in such a manner and until I looked 
> it up in the OED I thought he was mistaken in calling it an English word; 
> I thought it was perhaps borrowed from Hindi.
> 
> Has anyone else seen or heard this word in English?  Is this an example 
> of an english fossil found on the subcontinent?
> -- 

No, don't think so. It's totally common (well, maybe not like *everyday*
usage) over here.

It's used (in my experience) in the academic world, so that a member of
staff might be seconded to a different department for a year or so.

I don't really ever hear it being used outside the realm of jobs (so,
for instance, the example of a next door neighbour and a servant sounds
a little odd, but a sentence like:

Our head of department has been seconded to the Research Centre for a
year.

sounds perfectly normal, and has a specific meaning, which might sound
clumsy if worded differently.

Dave
-- 
David E Newton
Department of Linguistics
University of Edinburgh
den@ling.ed.ac.uk
