XPost: alt.english.usage, alt.usage.english

On 6/19/2024 5:14 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

From the "Cumberland Paquet", Whitehaven - February 23 - 1775.

A few nights ago in a town not many miles distant from this, a company
of people being in a public house, one of them was accusing another of ill-treatment, and in the course of his accusation frequently
mentioned the word Usages: it was bad usage, vile usage, cruel usage, shocking usage; and almost every other usage that a good man would not
use: A gentleman offered a bowl of punch to either the accuser or
accused, that could spell that same word usage, with which they both
appeared to be well acquainted. The offer was accepted, pen, ink and
paper were produced, when the accuser exhibited the word usage by the following letters, viz, YOWZITCHE: the arbitrators assured him that it
was not right; his competitor then took the paper, and after some deliberation, wrote under it YOWZITCH, The prize was awarded to him,
as he gave the sound of the word as perfect as the other had done,
without inserting a single letter agreeable to the Orthographical
usage of the that word.

i don't get it.

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